performance

noun — 5 senses

performance

noun

UK [pəˈfɔː.məns] · CA, US [pɚˈfoɹ.məns]

Etymology From Middle English parfourmaunce; equivalent to perform + -ance.

1

The act of performing; carrying into execution or action; execution; achievement; accomplishment; representation by action.

  • the performance of an undertaking or a duty
  • Though the result wasn't what we were hoping for, I have to commend the performance of the team, never giving up until the end.
2 more examples
  • Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
  • The outstanding train on the L.M.S. route was the 6.20 p.m. from Birmingham, which reached Euston in two hours after intermediate stops at Coventry, Rugby and Watford Junction, and evoked some sparkling performances from "Patriot" and "Jubilee" 4-6-0s.1960 February 23, R. C. Riley, “The London-Birmingham services - Past, Present and Future”, in Trains Illustrated, page 98:
2

That which is performed or accomplished; a thing done or carried through; an achievement; a deed; an act; a feat; especially, an action of an elaborate or public character.

3

Art, Arts A live show or concert.

  • The band played a mix of old and new songs during their 90-minute performance.
  • We saw the whole ballet performance from the front row.
4

The amount of useful work accomplished estimated in terms of time needed, resources used, etc.

  • Better performance means more work accomplished in shorter time and/or using fewer resources.
5

Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences The actual use of language in concrete situations by native speakers of a language, as opposed to the system of linguistic knowledge they possess (competence), cf. linguistic performance.

Derived terms
38 termsantiperformance, autoperformance, concert performance, coperformance, cyberformance, cyberperformance, high-performance, high-performance liquid chromatography, informance, isoperformance, key performance indicator, low-performance, midperformance, misperformance, multiperformance, nonperformance, outperformance, overperformance, performance anxiety, performance arousal, performance art, performance artist, performance bond, performance-driven, performance management, performance metric, performance poetry, performancewear, postperformance, preperformance, reperformance, seismic performance, specific performance, street performance, ultraperformance, underperformance, unperformance, variety performance
Related terms
performant, preformance, preform
Hyponyms
command performance, concert, movie, play, show

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.