Progresses

How to spell progresses

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce progresses

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does progresses mean?

1. verbAdvances or develops gradually over time toward a more complete or improved state.

Progresses in a sentence

• The renovation progresses faster now that the materials have arrived.

• As the course progresses, the reading load becomes heavier.

Where does progresses come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the third-person singular form of the verb 'progress', which traces back to the Latin progressus, the past participle of progredi, meaning 'to go forward' or 'to advance'. That verb was built from pro-, meaning 'forward', and gradi, meaning 'to step' or 'to walk', so the literal sense was a forward stepping. English took the noun in during the 1400s, originally describing a literal journey or a royal tour through the country, and only later did it settle into the modern abstract meaning of steady improvement. The verb sense, 'to move forward or develop', followed and was firmly established by the 1600s. The same gradi root, meaning to step, also gives us 'gradual', 'grade', and 'degree', which is a useful reminder that the spelling keeps the double-s of the Latin stem.

How the word is built

• pro- (forward)
• gress (from gradi: to step, to walk)
• -es (third-person singular verb ending)