# improvement
## English
### Alternative forms

* emprovement (obsolete)

### Etymology

From Anglo-Norman emprouwement. By surface analysis, improve +‎ -ment.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ɪmˈpɹuːvmənt/
* Audio (General American):(file)
* Hyphenation: im‧prove‧ment

### Noun

improvement (countable and uncountable, plural improvements)
* The act of improving; advancement or growth; a bettering
** November 9, 1662, Robert South, Of the Creation of Man in the Image of God
    I look upon your city as […] the best place of improvement.
** 1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres:Exercise is the chief source of improvement in all our faculties.
** 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.
** 2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70:Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. […] Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans. “Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising colossal bonuses to sitting chief executives if they meet ambitious growth targets. That model is still prevalent today.
* The act of making profitable use or application of anything, or the state of being profitably employed; practical application, for example of a doctrine, principle, or theory, stated in a discourse.
** 1705, Samuel Clarke, Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion:good improvement of his reason.
** 1681, John Tillotson, A sermon preached at the funeral of the Reverend Mr Thomas Gouge:I shall make some improvement of this doctrine.
* The state of being improved; betterment; advance
* Something which is improved
    the new edition is an improvement on the old.
** 1712 January 23 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SATURDAY, January 12, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 273; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:The parts of Sinon, Camilla, and some few others, are improvements on the Greek poet.The spelling has been modernized.
* Increase; growth; progress; advance.
** 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:Those vices which more particularly receive improvement by prosperity.
* (in the plural) Valuable additions or betterments, for example buildings, clearings, drains, fences, etc., on premises.
* (Patent Laws): A useful addition to, or modification of, a machine, manufacture, or composition.

#### Synonyms

* improval, amelioration

#### Antonyms

* worsening
* deterioration
* disimprovement

#### Hyponyms

* self-improvement

#### Derived terms

* disimprovement
* home improvement
* Kaldor-Hicks improvement
* Pareto-improvement
* Pareto improvement
* require improvement

#### See also

* uplift

### References

“improvement”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

## Italian
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English improvement.

### Noun

improvement m (invariable)
* (rare) improvement
    Synonyms: miglioramento, perfezionamento