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proceed

verb

Simple meaning

Move ahead; travel onward in time or space.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

pruhseed

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

pɹəˈsid

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. Move ahead; travel onward in time or space

  2. To move, pass, or go forward or onward; to advance; to carry on.

  3. To pass from one point, topic, or stage, to another.

  4. To be transacted; to take place; to occur.

  5. To go on in an orderly or regulated manner; to begin and carry on a series of acts or measures; to act methodically.

  6. To take an academic degree.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Move ahead; travel onward in time or space

Used this way, proceed is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Move

now proceedproceed alongproceed immediately

Pass

proceed further

Other combinations

proceed throughproceed directly

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • go forward

    Move ahead; travel onward in time or space.

  • move

    Change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically.

  • go

    To move or travel in order to do something, or to do something while moving.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • proceedsnounPlural form

    The income or profit arising from such transactions as the sale of land or other property.

  • proceedingnounInflected form

    The institution of a sequence of steps by which legal judgments are invoked.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • legal proceedingnounCompound term

    The institution of a sequence of steps by which legal judgments are invoked.

  • bastardy proceedingnounCompound term

    A lawsuit filed to determine the father of a child born out of wedlock (and to provide for the support of the child once paternity is determined).

  • judicial proceedingnounCompound term

    A legal proceeding in a court.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: move ahead

go

Commonly Confused With

precedePrecede vs. ProceedKnow the difference

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.