progress#

progress n

1 advance (see under ADVANCE vb 2)

Analogous words: improvement, betterment (see corresponding verbs at IMPROVE): headway, impetus (see SPEED n)

2 Progress, progression are not always clearly distinguished, although they can be more or less sharply differentiated. Both denote movement forward.

Progress (see also progress n under ADVANCE vb 2) usually applies to a movement considered as a whole, stressing such aspects as the distance covered, the change or changes taking place, and the amount of improvement made

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we made little progress that day

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note the extent of his progress during the past year

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delightful never-ending progress to perfection— Hazlitt

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the history of educational progress

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the rapid progress of a disease

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Progression (see also SUCCESSION) commonly applies to a movement in itself or in its detail, often implying a continuous series of steps, degrees, or stages toward an objective but sometimes implying little more than a moving on more or less continuously

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mode of progression

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that slow progression of things, which naturally makes elegance and refinement the last effect of opulence and power— Reynolds

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every generation . . . adds ... its own discoveries in a progression to which there seems no limit— Peacock

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progress vb *advance

Analogous words: *move, drive, impel: further, forward, promote, *advance: develop, *mature

Antonyms: retrogress