practise

• practice (US)

From Middle English practizen, a variant of practisen, from Middle French pratiser, practiser, from Medieval Latin practizo, from Late Latin practico (“to do, perform, execute, propose, practise, exercise, be conversant with, contrive, conspire, etc.”), from prāctica (“practical affairs", "business”), from Ancient Greek πρᾱκτική (prāktikḗ), from πρᾱκτικός (prāktikós, “practical”), from πρᾱ́σσειν (prā́ssein, “to do”).

• enPR: prăkʹtĭs, IPA^(key): /ˈpɹæktɪs/, /ˈpɹæk.tɪs/

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practise (third-person singular simple present practises, present participle practising, simple past and past participle practised)

1. (transitive) To repeat (an activity) as a way of improving one's skill in that activity.

   You should practise playing piano every day.

2. (intransitive) To repeat an activity in this way.

   If you want to speak French well, you need to practise.

3. (transitive) To perform or observe in a habitual fashion.

   They gather to practise religion every Saturday.

   • 2012 March-April, John T. Jost, “Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 162:

     He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record. With this biological framework in place, Corning endeavors to show that the capitalist system as currently practiced in the United States and elsewhere is manifestly unfair.

4. (transitive) To pursue (a career, especially law, fine art or medicine).

   She practised law for forty years before retiring.

5. (intransitive, obsolete) To conspire.
6. To put into practice; to carry out; to act upon; to commit; to execute; to do.
   • Shakespeare

     Aught but Talbot's shadow whereon to practise your severity.

   • Alexander Pope

     As this advice ye practise or neglect.

7. To make use of; to employ.
   • Massinger

     In malice to this good knight's wife, I practised Ubaldo and Ricardo to corrupt her.

8. To teach or accustom by practice; to train.
   • Landor

     In church they are taught to love God; after church they are practised to love their neighbour.

• In sense "to repeat an activity as a way improving one's skill" this is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing). See Appendix:English catenative verbs.

• British, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand English spelling distinguishes between practice (a noun) and practise (a verb), analogously with advice and advise. In American English, the spelling practice is commonly used for both noun and verb.

• practised
• practising

• practic
• practicable
• practical
• practice
• practitioner

• practise in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• practise in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

practise (plural practises)

1. Misspelling of practice.

• crispate, patrices, picrates, pie carts