advancement

advancement, preferment, promotion, elevation designate the act of raising a person in grade, rank, or dignity, or the honor that comes to one who is so raised.

Advancement is the general term of widest application

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lose all hope of advance me nt

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Preferment especially in older use often comes close to advancement

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’tis the curse of service, preferment goes by letter and affection, and not by old gradation, where each second stood heir to the first— Shak.

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It now more often implies choice, especially from a series of candidates or possibilities

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a military record was the surest road to military preferment among vigorous frontiersmen— Coulter

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obedience spelled preferment in the civil service— Schumpeter

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Promotion, usually but not invariably, implies gradation or raising according to a fixed plan, often involving the passing of tests or the meeting of qualifications. It is the specific word in education to designate the end-of-the-term advance of pupils to a higher grade or in any field where members of a force or staff are given positions of higher rank with increased remuneration. Elevation is applicable only when the advancement carries marked increase in honor or dignity

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the prime minister’s elevation to the peerage

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the bishop’s elevation to the cardinalate

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the many men of talent who owed their elevation to Wolsey— Froude

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Antonyms: degradation: reduction (in rank or status)