Meaning & use
improve
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To make something better in quality, value, skill, or condition.
Grammar: Takes an object: improve your spelling.
Patterns
- improve skills
- improve quality
- improve performance
- improve something for someone
Regular practice can improve your pronunciation.
The new filters improve air quality in the workshop.
She improved the recipe by reducing the sugar.
verbintransitive
To become better than before.
Grammar: No object; the subject itself gets better: the weather improved.
Patterns
- improve over time
- improve dramatically
- improve with practice
- improve on a previous result
His confidence improved during the semester.
The service has improved since the manager changed.
I hope my knee improves before the hike.
Word forms
| third person singular | improves |
|---|---|
| past tense | improved |
| past participle | improved |
| -ing form | improving |
Common combinations
- improve skills
- The course helps students improve writing skills.
- improve quality
- Better materials improve quality without raising prices much.
- improve efficiency
- New software should improve efficiency in the office.
- improve with practice
- Your timing will improve with practice.
- improve on a result
- The team hopes to improve on last season’s record.
Synonyms and how they differ
- enhance
- More formal; often improves value, features, or reputation.
- better
- Can mean improve, but it is less common in formal writing and may sound general.
- refine
- Means improve by making small careful changes, often to a process or design.
- progress
- Intransitive and broader; it can mean move forward rather than get better.
Opposites
Word family
- improvement noun
- The process or result of becoming better.
- improved adjective
- Made better than before.
- improving adjective
- Getting better; often used before nouns.
Commonly confused: improve or improvise? improve or approve?
improve vs improvise
Improvise means create without preparation; improve means make or become better.
improve vs approve
Approve means agree or accept, while improve means make better.
Practice
Choose the correct sentence.
Choose one answer.
Here improve is intransitive, so it has no object: the weather itself became better. “Improved us” and “improved the picnic” add objects that do not fit the meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “improve”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.