different between achieve vs improve

English

Alternative forms

• atchieve (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English achieven, acheven, from Anglo-Norman achever, Old French achever, achiever et al., apparently from Late Latin *accapp?re, present active infinitive of *accapp?, from ad (“to”) + caput (“head”) + -? (verbal suffix), or alternatively a construction based on Old French chief (“head”). Compare Catalan, Occitan, Portuguese and Spanish acabar, French achever.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??t?i?v/
• Rhymes: -i?v

Verb

achieve (third-person singular simple present achieves, present participle achieving, simple past and past participle achieved)

1. (intransitive) To succeed in something, now especially in academic performance. [from 14th c.]
2. (transitive) To carry out successfully; to accomplish. [from 14th c.]
   • 1832, Isaac Taylor, Saturday Evening

     Supposing faculties and powers to be the same, far more may be achieved in any line by the aid of a capital, invigorating motive than without it.

3. (obsolete, transitive) To conclude, finish, especially successfully. [14th-18th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.1:

     Full many Countreyes they did overronne, / From the uprising to the setting Sunne, / And many hard adventures did atchieve […]

4. (transitive) To obtain, or gain (a desired result, objective etc.), as the result of exertion; to succeed in gaining; to win. [from 14th c.]
   • c. 1601-1602, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, II-v

     Some are born great, some achieve greatness.
5. (obsolete, intransitive) To conclude, to turn out. [14th-16th c.]
6. (transitive, now literary) To obtain (a material thing). [from 15th c.]
   • 1700, Matthew Prior, Carmen Seculare. for the Year 1700

   Show all the spoils by valiant kings achieved.

   • c. 1603-1604, William Shakespeare, Othello, II-i

     He hath achieved a maid / That paragons description.

Synonyms

• accomplish, effect, fulfil, fulfill, complete, execute, perform, realize, obtain. See accomplish

Derived terms

• achievable
• achievement
• achiever
• overachieve
• underachieve

Translations

Further reading

• achieve at OneLook Dictionary Search
• achieve in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

English

Alternative forms

• emprove (obsolete)

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman emprouwer, from Old French en- + prou (“profit”), from Vulgar Latin prode (“advantageous, profitable”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?p?u?v/
• Rhymes: -u?v

Verb

improve (third-person singular simple present improves, present participle improving, simple past and past participle improved)

1. (transitive) To make (something) better; to increase the value or productivity (of something).
2. (intransitive) To become better.

   • “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”

3. (obsolete) To disprove or make void; to refute.
   • 1528, William Tyndale, The Obedience of a Christian Man

     Neither can any of them make so strong a reason which another cannot improve.

4. (obsolete) To disapprove of; to find fault with; to reprove; to censure.
   • 1528, William Tyndale, The Obedience of a Christian Man

     When he rehearsed his preachings and his doing unto the high apostles, they could improve nothing.

5. (dated) To use or employ to good purpose; to turn to profitable account.
   • a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, The Reward of Honouring God (sermon)

     We shall especially honour God, by discharging faithfully those offices which God hath entrusted us with: by improving diligently those talents which God hath committed to us

   • a hint that I do not remember to have seen opened and improved

   • the court has also an opportunity, which it seldom fails to improve.

   • 1715, Isaac Watts, Against Idleness and Mischief

     How doth the little busy bee / Improve each shining hour.

   • March 7, 1778, George Washington, letter

     True policy, as well as good faith, in my opinion, binds us to improve the occasion.

Synonyms

• (to make something better): ameliorate, better, batten, enhance; See also Thesaurus:improve

Antonyms

• (to make something worse): deteriorate, worsen; See also Thesaurus:aggravate
• (to become worse): deteriorate, worsen; See also Thesaurus:worsen

Derived terms

• improvement
• improver
• improving

Translations

Further reading

• "improve" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 160.