In a thing good in itself all advance or progress is improvement there is a growing tendency to restrict the words to this favorable sense, using increase indifferently of good or evil one may say without limitation, 'I am an advocate of progress.'Ĭheck, decline, delay, falling back, falling off, relapse, retrogression, stay, stop, stoppageĪdvance, advancement, attainment, development, growth, improvement, increase, proficiency, progress Progress is more frequently used of abstractions as, the progress of ideas progression fixes the attention chiefly upon the act of moving forward.

Advance admits the possibility of retreat progress (Latin progredi, to walk forward) is steady and constant forward movement, admitting of pause, but not of retreat advance suggests more clearly a point to be reached, while progress lays the emphasis upon the forward movement we may speak of slow or rapid progress, but more naturally of swift advance. Advance may denote either a forward movement or the point gained by forward movement, but always relatively with reference to the point from which the movement started as, this is a great advance. Attainment, development, and proficiency are more absolute than the other words of the group, denoting some point of advantage or of comparative perfection reached by forward or onward movement we speak of attainments in virtue or scholarship, proficiency in music or languages, the development of new powers or organs proficiency includes the idea of skill. Progress (Latin pro, forward, gradior, go) is a moving onward or forward, whether in space or in the mental or moral realm, and may be either mechanical, individual, or social.

What is the opposite of progress