performancenoun
uk/pəˈfɔː.məns/us/pɚˈfɔːr.məns/performance noun (ACTIVITY)
B2 [ C or U ] how well a person, machine, etc. does a piece of work or an activity:
He was an experienced player who was always seeking to improve his performance.
High-performance cars (= those that are fast, powerful, and easy to control) are the most expensive.
This was a very impressive performance by the young player, who scored 14 points within the first ten minutes.
More examples
- The financial performance of the business is fully expected to improve.
- He was fired from his $165,000 job for poor performance.
- At the end of each teaching practice, trainee teachers are asked to appraise their own performance.
- That was an impressive performance from such a young tennis player.
- When criticisms were made of the school's performance, the parents' group countered with details of its exam results.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Acting and acts
- (your) every move idiom
- -ation
- act/do sth on your own responsibility idiom
- action
- activity
- agency
- ant
- be up to sth idiom
- feel
- gambit
- get around to sth
- give yourself over/up to sth
- go about sth
- go about your business idiom
- go through with sth
- hand
- manoeuvre
- manoeuvring
- money
- up to
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performance noun (ENTERTAINMENT)
B1 [ C ] the action of entertaining other people by dancing, singing, acting, or playing music:
a performance of Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible"
She gave a superb performance as Lady Macbeth.
a performance mainly UK informal
an action or type of behaviour that involves a lot of attention to detail or to small matters that are not important:
Cleaning the oven is such a performance.
What a performance! Please stop shouting!
a repeat performance
an occasion when an event or a situation happens again:
The police hope to avoid a repeat performance of last year, when the festivities turned into rioting.
More examples
- We all clapped his performance enthusiastically.
- an electrifying performance
- The audience was enraptured by the young soloist's performance.
- There was an explosion of applause from the audience at the end of the performance.
- She gave a masterly performance as Kate in 'The Taming of the Shrew'.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Spectacles & performances
- act
- amateur dramatics
- amateur theater
- barnstorm
- bullfight
- co-production
- command performance
- curtain-raiser
- double bill
- mano a mano
- night
- performance art
- premiere
- Punch and Judy show
- pyrotechnics
- rendition
- spot
- talent contest
- theatricals
- variety
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Difficult things and people
Repeating an action