Progress

How to spell progress

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce progress

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does progress mean?

1. nounForward movement toward a goal, or gradual improvement and development.
2. verbTo move forward or advance, or to develop and improve over time.

Progress in a sentence

• noun

  The manager asked for a weekly update on the project's progress.

• verb

  The negotiations began to progress once both sides relaxed their demands.

• noun

  Slow traffic meant we made little progress on the motorway.

• verb

  Trainees progress to the next stage only after passing the assessment.

Where does progress come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin progressus, the past participle of progredi, meaning 'to go forward' or 'to advance'. That verb was built from the prefix pro-, meaning 'forward', and gradi, meaning 'to step' or 'to walk', so the literal sense was simply 'a stepping forward'. English adopted it in the late 1400s, at first as a noun describing a journey or onward movement, including the ceremonial 'royal progress' a monarch made through the country. Over time the idea of physical forward motion broadened into the figurative sense of improvement and development that dominates today. The same gradi root walks quietly through many relatives, including 'gradual', 'degrade', and 'congress', which all share that notion of stepping. Knowing the root explains the single 's' followed by a doubled, no: the spelling keeps the simple -gress ending, with just two s letters at the close.

How the word is built

• pro- (forward)
• -gress (from gradi: to step, walk)