Other forms: progressed, progresses, progressing
Progress is movement forward — getting closer to where you want to be. The bar filling as a file downloads, a child reading a little faster each month, the pile of boxes shrinking as you unpack.
The fixed phrase is make progress: you make progress, and it is slow or steady or good. In progress means happening right now — a meeting in progress, work in progress. There is a verb too, and the stress moves: the noun is PRO-gress, the verb pro-GRESS, as in the talks progressed all night. Doctors use that verb for the opposite of good news, since an illness progresses as it gets worse. In the everyday sense the noun takes no plural and no a: you make progress, not a progress.
1nounprogressMovement towards a better, more developed or more complete state.~42%
“The doctors were pleased with her progress after the operation.”
synonyms: advance, improvement, headway
2nounplaceForward movement through a place or through time.~25%
“Our progress along the flooded lane was painfully slow.”
3verbmoveTo move forward or get better over time.~25%
“The building work progressed faster once the rain stopped.”
4verbseriousTo develop into a more serious or advanced stage.~8%
“The disease progresses slowly, and most patients live for years.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 12 sentences found in the wild and placed 12 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
progress is forward movement.
Latin prōgredī meant simply to go forward — pro-, forward, plus gradior, to step. Its participle gave prōgressus, an advance, which reached English through Old French progres, a going forward. The picture underneath is physical: progress is one foot put in front of the other.
Proto-Indo-European
*per-
Latin
prōgressus — an advance
Old French
progres — a going forward
Middle English
progresse
English, today
progress
Built from
From Middle English progresse, from Old French progres (“a going forward”), from Latin prōgressus (“an advance”), from the participle stem of prōgredī (“to go forward, advance, develop”), from pro- + gradi. Displaced native forþgang.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA