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practice
[ prak-tis ]
noun
- habitual or customary performance; operation:
office practice.
- habit; custom:
It is not the practice here for men to wear long hair.
- repeated performance or systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill or proficiency:
Practice makes perfect.
Synonyms:
- condition arrived at by experience or exercise:
She refused to play the piano, because she was out of practice.
- the action or process of performing or doing something:
to put a scheme into practice;
the shameful practices of a blackmailer.
- the exercise or pursuit of a profession or occupation, especially law or medicine:
She plans to set up practice in her hometown.
- the business of a professional person:
The doctor wanted his daughter to take over his practice when he retired.
- Law. the established method of conducting legal proceedings.
- Archaic. plotting; intrigue; trickery.
- Usually practices. Archaic. intrigues; plots.
verb (used with object)
- to perform or do habitually or usually:
to practice a strict regimen.
- to follow or observe habitually or customarily:
to practice one's religion.
- to exercise or pursue as a profession, art, or occupation:
to practice law.
- to perform or do repeatedly in order to acquire skill or proficiency:
to practice the violin.
- to train or drill (a person, animal, etc.) in something in order to give proficiency.
verb (used without object)
- to do something habitually or as a practice.
- to pursue a profession, especially law or medicine.
- to exercise oneself by repeated performance in order to acquire skill:
to practice at shooting.
- Archaic. to plot or conspire.
practice
/ ˈæɪ /
noun
- a usual or customary action or proceeding
he made a practice of stealing stamps
it was his practice to rise at six
- repetition or exercise of an activity in order to achieve mastery and fluency
- the condition of having mastery of a skill or activity through repetition (esp in the phrases in practice, out of practice )
- the exercise of a profession
he set up practice as a lawyer
- the act of doing something
he put his plans into practice
- the established method of conducting proceedings in a court of law
verb
- the US spelling of practise
Other Word Forms
- t· noun
- ·t noun verb mispracticed mispracticing
- ԴDz·t noun
- dzܳpt verb (used with object) outpracticed outpracticing
- v·t verb (used with object) overpracticed overpracticing
- ·t verb prepracticed prepracticing
- ·t verb (used with object) repracticed repracticing
Word History and Origins
Origin of practice1
Word History and Origins
Origin of practice1
Idioms and Phrases
- in practice
- make a practice of
- out of practice
- put into practice
- sharp practice
Example Sentences
And it's a reminder of an era where many of the truisms we take for granted now —such as a diversified portfolio and the benefits of an index fund — weren’t always common practice.
A harmonica class was introduced seven years ago, and the group started practicing the U.S. national anthem in 2021.
That has resulted in cliched language that tests well in a focus group but feels inauthentic to real voters who do not actually care, in practice, about Bipartisan Solutions to America’s Policy Challenges.
The author is a psychiatrist/psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City and teaches psychiatry residents as a clinical assistant professor of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
The council’s eventual pick was Nancy Martiz, a member of the Huntington Park Civil Service Commission that advises the city on equitable hiring practices.
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Practice Vs. Practise
’s the difference between practice and practise?
In British English (and many other international varieties of English), the spelling practice is used when the word is a noun, while the spelling practise is used when it’s a verb. In American English, the spelling practice is always used, regardless of whether the word is used as a verb or a noun.
This is somewhat similar to the difference in spelling between advice (noun) and advise (verb)—a distinction that’s used in both British and American English.
However, unlike advice and advise, practice and practise are always pronounced the same.
Here is an example of how practice and practise would be used in the same sentence in British English.
Example: Remember, practice makes perfect—the more you practise, the better you will get.
Want to learn more? Read the full breakdown of the difference between practice and practise.
Quiz yourself on practice vs. practise!
True or False?
In American English, the spelling practice is used only for nouns.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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