Improv

How to spell improv

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce improv

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does improv mean?

1. nounPerformance, especially comedy or theatre, that is invented spontaneously rather than scripted.

Improv in a sentence

• The comedy club runs a weekly improv night with no written script.

• She signed up for an improv class to build her confidence on stage.

Where does improv come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Improv is a twentieth century clipping of improvisation, a word that traces back through French to the Latin improvisus, meaning 'unforeseen' or 'not provided for in advance'. That Latin form breaks into in-, meaning 'not', and provisus, the past participle of providere, 'to foresee or provide', which is itself the source of everyday words like 'provide' and 'provision'. The idea was simple: to improvise is to do something with no advance preparation, nothing foreseen or arranged beforehand. The verb 'improvise' arrived in English in the early 1800s, and the full noun improvisation followed; theatre and comedy performers later trimmed it to the snappy improv during the mid 1900s as a name for unscripted performance. Because the clipped form drops the final 'e' of the related word 'improve', writers sometimes confuse the two, even though they are unrelated in meaning.

How the word is built

• clipping of improvisation: im- (not)
• prov (from Latin providere, to foresee)
• -isation; shortened to the bare stem improv