What does improve mean?
Improve means to make something better or to become better. It is used for qualities, skills, conditions, results, and performance: a programme may improve access to education, a team may improve its performance, or a patient may improve steadily. The word is also used in constructions such as "improve on" and "improve upon," meaning to surpass an earlier result or an existing standard. Improve is more general than words such as enhance or refine, which can focus respectively on added value or greater precision. In everyday use, it carries a positive, practical connotation and suggests measurable or observable progress. Although improve can be transitive, as in "improve a service," it is also commonly used intransitively when the subject itself gets better. It is suitable in formal writing, education, business, health, sport, and everyday conversation.
verbTo make something better in quality, effectiveness, or condition, or to become better. It can also mean to achieve a higher standard or surpass a previous performance.
- To make something better in quality, condition, effectiveness, or value.
- To become better, especially in performance, health, or circumstances.
- To surpass a standard, result, or previous achievement.
"The new process is intended to improve the quality of the service."
"Regular exercise can improve both health and concentration."
"Her results improved considerably after she changed her study routine."
"The team improved upon last season's performance."
Improve originally carried the sense of turning a thing to profit, a meaning that survives in phrases such as improving one's position.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does improve come from?
Improve entered Middle English in the late medieval period, probably through Anglo-French forms related to Old French aprover. Its ultimate source is Latin, combining in- with probare, meaning "to test" or "to approve." The word originally developed meanings connected with turning something to profit or making a matter advantageous. Its modern sense of making something better developed through the idea of advantageous or beneficial action. Related English words, including approve, approval, disapprove, prove, and proof, share the Latin root probare, meaning to test or judge.
Related word forms
How improve is actually used
Improve is widely used in formal and informal English. In British English, "improve on" and "improve upon" are both common; the former is often used when comparing performance with an earlier result. The word can suggest steady progress, but it does not necessarily imply dramatic change.
Easily confused with improve
Improve is the general word for making something better, whereas enhance often emphasizes adding value, polish, or effectiveness to something that already exists.
Improve upon means to surpass a standard or previous achievement, while improve by itself generally means to make something better or to become better.