progressively

«progressively» in Mova's school dictionary: Steadily and step by step, more and more over time: «It… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

adverb (progressively; from the adjective progressive)

meaning for a pupil

1) Steadily and step by step, more and more over time: «It got progressively colder». tree →

2) In a progressive, forward-looking way (rare). tree →

sense in the lessons

Used in science, maths and stories for change that keeps growing: progressively harder questions, progressively darker sky. In maths it describes sequences that keep increasing or decreasing. Phrases: «progressively worse», «progressively better», «progressively harder», «progressively more».

examples

• The questions get progressively harder as you go down the page. tree →
• It grew progressively darker as the sun set. tree →
• My reading has got progressively better this year. tree →
• The noise got progressively louder as the parade came closer. tree →
• The path became progressively steeper. tree →
• In the sequence 2, 4, 8, 16, the numbers get progressively bigger. tree →
• His cough got progressively worse, so he went to the doctor. tree →

note

Spelling: progress + ive + ly (double s). Similar: «gradually», «increasingly», «steadily». In maths it signals a pattern of change, but not which kind: adding the same amount (2, 4, 6, 8) or multiplying (2, 4, 8, 16) are both «progressively bigger».

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «progressively» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.