Meaning & use
reinforcement
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
Extra people, equipment, or material sent to make a group or structure stronger.
Grammar: Often used in the plural for troops: reinforcements arrived.
Patterns
- send reinforcements
- reinforcements arrive
The army sent reinforcements to the front line.
The bridge needs steel reinforcement to carry heavy trucks.
More police reinforcements were called to control the crowd.
noununcountabletechnical
In psychology, a reward or event that makes a behavior more likely to happen again.
Grammar: Used as a technical term; often with 'positive' or 'negative'.
Patterns
- positive reinforcement
- negative reinforcement
The teacher used positive reinforcement to encourage good behavior.
In the experiment, food was used as reinforcement for the rats.
Negative reinforcement removes something unpleasant to increase a behavior.
Word forms
| plural | reinforcements |
|---|
Common combinations
- positive reinforcement
- Praise is a form of positive reinforcement.
- send reinforcements
- The general decided to send reinforcements immediately.
- steel reinforcement
- The concrete wall contains steel reinforcement.
- reinforcement learning
- Reinforcement learning is a type of machine learning.
Synonyms and how they differ
- support
- Support is a general word for help; reinforcement specifically means extra strength or troops added to something existing.
- backup
- Backup means extra help ready if needed; reinforcement is already sent to strengthen.
Opposites
Word family
- reinforce verb
- To make something stronger: They reinforced the door.
- reinforced adjective
- Made stronger with extra material: reinforced concrete.
Commonly confused: reinforcement or enforcement?
reinforcement vs enforcement
Enforcement means making people obey a law or rule; reinforcement means making something stronger or adding support.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'reinforcement' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Option 2 uses 'reinforcement' as a noun in the psychology sense, which is correct. Option 0 uses it as a verb, which is wrong. Option 1 uses the singular form where the plural 'reinforcements' is needed for troops. Option 3 uses it to mean enforcement, which is a different word.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “reinforcement”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.