Practice

How to spell practice

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce practice

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does practice mean?

1. nounRepeated exercise to build a skill, an established custom, or the working business of a professional such as a doctor or lawyer.
2. verbTo perform an activity repeatedly in order to improve or maintain a skill (the American spelling, where British and Canadian writers use 'practise').

Practice in a sentence

• noun

  The doctor runs a busy medical practice on the high street.

• verb

  The students practice their lines every afternoon before the show.

• noun

  Regular practice at the piano is the only way to improve.

• verb

  Surgeons practice delicate procedures on models before the real operation.

Where does practice come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word traces back to the Greek verb prassein, meaning 'to do' or 'to act', and its related adjective praktikos, 'fit for action'. From this came the medieval Latin practica, used for the practical or applied side of an art or science, as opposed to its theory. English took the word in during the late 1400s by way of Old French practiser and the noun practique, initially in the sense of carrying out a craft or profession. Over time the noun settled on three linked ideas: repeated exercise to gain skill, an established custom or habit, and the working business of a doctor or lawyer. In British and Canadian usage the spelling 'practice' was reserved for the noun, while the verb kept the older 's' form 'practise', and that neat split is the spelling trap; American English merged both back into 'practice'.

How the word is built

• practi- (from Greek praktikos: concerned with doing, active)
• -ce (noun-forming ending)

British and American spelling

Both practice and practise are correct, depending on where you are writing.