Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The act or process of improving.
- n. The state of being improved.
- n. A change or addition that improves.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act of improving or making better, or the state of being made better; advancement or increase in any good quality; betterment.
- n. Profitable use or employment; practical or advantageous application: as, the improvement of one's time. The concluding part of a discourse or sermon, enforcing the practical use or application of the principles taught, was formerly called the improvement.
- n. Use; practice; indulgence.
- n. A betterment; that by which the value or excellence of a thing is enhanced; a beneficial or valuable change or addition. In patent law an improvement is an addition to or change in some specific machine or contrivance, by which the same effects are produced in a better manner than before, or new effects are produced. An improvement in real property is something done or added to it which increases its value, as cultivation or the erection of or addition to buildings.
Wiktionary
- n. The act of improving; advancement or growth; promotion in desirable qualities; progress toward what is better; melioration; as, the improvement of the mind, of land, roads, etc.
- n. The act of making profitable use or application of anything, or the state of being profitably employed; a turning to good account; practical application, as of a doctrine, principle, or theory, stated in a discourse.
- n. The state of being improved; betterment; advance; also, that which is improved; as, the new edition is an improvement on the old.
- n. Increase; growth; progress; advance.
- n. plural : Valuable additions or betterments, as buildings, clearings, drains, fences, etc., on premises.
- n. : A useful addition to, or modification of, a machine, manufacture, or composition.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act of improving; advancement or growth; promotion in desirable qualities; progress toward what is better; melioration.
- n. The act of making profitable use or applicaton of anything, or the state of being profitably employed; a turning to good account; practical application, as of a doctrine, principle, or theory, stated in a discourse.
- n. The state of being improved; betterment; advance; also, that which is improved.
- n. Increase; growth; progress; advance.
- n. Valuable additions or betterments, as buildings, clearings, drains, fences, etc., on land or premises.
- n. (Patent Laws) A useful addition to, or modification of, a machine, manufacture, or composition.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the act of improving something
- n. a change for the better; progress in development
- n. a condition superior to an earlier condition
Examples
“In the progrefs of improvement, the firft may rife to anj extravagance of price; the fecond has a limitation in the value c»f the ground employed to produce them; tlie third may be cx« ceedingly variable in a date of cpntinued improvement*”
“Memory improvement means _improvement of the Action_ or _Manner_ of action of the Mental powers, and that what he imparts is the right way to USE the Intellect and Attention -- and that hence his System does make and must make better observers, clearer and more consecutive thinkers, and sounder reasoners as well as surer rememberers; that in short the fundamental principle of his System is Learn by Thinking, and that his achievements as a mind-trainer are completed when he has helped the student of his System to acquire the Habit of Attention and the Habit of”
“The word improvement has itself been improved; it is now next generation.”
“* Waiting for Superman suggests that teacher improvement is a matter of increased control and discipline over teachers.”
The Washington Post: What ‘Superman’ got wrong, point by point
“Almost none of the improvement is the consequence of new drugs or new devices.”
The Washington Post: U.S. military medics use old and new techniques to save wounded in Afghanistan
“In fact, I think an objective observer would say that this progress and this improvement is already underway.”
“Underlying this improvement is the distinct moderation that has started to take place in recent months in the rise in Canadian costs of production.”
“I hope the government won't sell it off at a knock down price to make some short term improvement in treasury figures.”
“About roughly out of this year I will guess that about half will be what I call improvement projects and half in investment or required for maintenance or repair type of projects.”
“But that type of "improvement" is not what you as fans should want - not only will you have back-to-back losing seasons, but you will also win too many games to pick up a franchise quarterback for the next few years.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘improvement’.
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Words related to knowledge
Words that relate to learning, knowing, being enlightened...
revelation, eureka, awakening, idea, sapient, astute, canny, intelligent, wise, sharp, shrewd, informed and 467 more...
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
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-ment
result; product; instrument; means
pavement, adornment, measurement, disappointment, appointment, reappointment, government, management, development, department, movement, agreement and 40 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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artoparts's Words
illation, finite, edify, abide, abrade, vouch, amiss, vociferate, perusing, techantiquery, rigamarole, holon and 615 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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-ent
salient, sentient, sentiment, prominent, eminent, apparent, fervent, placement, predicament, malevolent, maleficent, beneficent and 89 more...
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Surveying
an attempt to subdivide your life
theodolite, gun, instrument, azimuth, bearing, angle, chainman, crew chief, minor partition, control, backsight, d.i. and 77 more...
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Opera, Karate, Bandit
Story vocabulary
dramatics, exasperated, improvement, rationed, pouted, sophisticated
Tweets
Looking for tweets for improvement.
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