progression
Americannoun
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the act of progressing; forward or onward movement.
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a passing successively from one member of a series to the next; succession; sequence.
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Mathematics. a succession of quantities in which there is a constant relation between each member and the one succeeding it.
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Music. the manner in which chords or melodic tones follow one another; a succession of chords or tones.
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Astrology. any of a variety of methods of comparing the natal chart to subsequent planetary positions in order to establish an optimum time to accomplish things or to establish the probable time an event occurred or will occur.
noun
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the act of progressing; advancement
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the act or an instance of moving from one thing or unit in a sequence to the next
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maths a sequence of numbers in which each term differs from the succeeding term by a constant relation See also arithmetic progression geometric progression harmonic progression
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music movement, esp of a logical kind, from one note to the next ( melodic progression ) or from one chord to the next ( harmonic progression )
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astrology one of several calculations, based on the movement of the planets, from which it is supposed that one can find the expected developments in a person's birth chart and the probable trends of circumstances for a year in his life
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of progression
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin prōgressiōn-, stem of prōgressiō “advancement, forward movement”; equivalent to progress + -ion
Explanation
A progression is a series that advances in a logical and predictable pattern. In mathematics, for example, the series 2, 4, 6, 8 is an arithmetic progression. If asked to give the next number, most people would reply 10. A movement forward, especially one that advances toward some achievement, is called a progression. When you get your learner's permit, it's a step in the natural progression from child to responsible adult — although you may see it as part of your progression toward freedom. The progression from permit to driver's license includes a few more steps, like highway driving and learning how to parallel park your dad's enormous car.
Vocabulary lists containing progression
By the Roots: Grad-, Gress-: to step
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Common Core Grades 7–8, List 5
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Common Core Grade 6, List 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But in his first game in charge on Tuesday, Hearts were battered 4-0 by Sturm Graz and any hopes of Champions League progression have died off quicker than you can say Christian Borchgrevink.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
As he snored companionably, I wondered how I’d handle our next progression, whatever that would be.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
Blocking the spread of α-synuclein between neurons could provide a way to slow or even halt Parkinson's progression.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026
While the magnitude of the selloff may seem concerning, some analysts think it’s a natural progression following a big run-up.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 8, 2026
Anyway, the chord progression goes like this: it starts with G major, on a couple of downstrokes.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Probably because at the time many of the time signatures and chordal progressions that Miles used were over the head of a young guitar player still functioning in the blues and folk idioms.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 25, 2026
He sings with an unusual drawl that connects to the diction of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, and his compact melodies and tightly structured chord progressions put his voice and lyrics in the foreground.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026
And then he wrote this song that kind of had some similar chord progressions in it.
From Seattle Times ● May 8, 2024
Park evokes all of this while maintaining an electrified focus on ordering the Captain's journey into pleasing progressions, like a jazz or funk solo on one of the many American soul songs he loves.
From Salon ● Apr. 14, 2024
Depending on your interests, you may also want to spend time creating pleasing chord progressions by choosing chords from the correct key that will complement a melody that you know.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.