Meaning of performance in English

performance

noun

/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.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Acting and acts

(your) every move idiom
-ence
act
act for someone
act/do something on your own responsibility idiom
activity
ADL
agency
ant
er
execution
exploit
move
responsibility
role-play
rot
step
step up
stuff
talk

See more results »

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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'.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Spectacles & performances

See more results »

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Difficult things and people

Repeating an action

(Definition of performance from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

performance | American Dictionary

performance

noun

/pərˈfɔr·məns/

performance noun (DOING)

[ U ]

the act of doing something, such as your job:

If the accident happened during the performance of his regular duties, he’s covered by disability insurance.

[ U ]

Performance also refers to how well an activity or job is done:

With a record of 2 wins and 3 defeats, the team’s performance has been disappointing.

(Definition of performance from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

performance | Business English

performance

noun

/pəˈfɔːməns/ us

[ C or U ]

how successful an investment, company, etc. is and how much profit it makes:

The Fund's past performance does not necessarily indicate how it will perform in the future.

good/solid/strong performance Last year saw a strong performance from the high-street retailer.

bad/disappointing/poor performance The retailer said it would restructure operations to cut costs after its disappointing performance of the past year.

business/economic/financial performance Financial performance was below expectations and we are working on improvements.

boost/improve/measure performance The board is under pressure to improve performance following a profits warning in January.

The business value model should include high-level performance measures such as profitability, market growth, etc.

operating/trading performance

[ U ] IT

how well a computer, machine, etc. works:

The latest Intel-based notebooks rival PC performance.

[ U ]

how well someone does their job or their duties:

good/impressive/poor perfomance He was fired for poor performance.

John's departure is not directly related to his performance.

LAW formal

the act of doing what is stated in a legal agreement:

Subject to due performance of its obligations, each Party shall be entitled to receive copies of all results.

Examples of performance

performance

The recordings comprised uninterrupted performances of opera overtures, but they cost ten shillings and sixpence each, and needed an outsize turntable.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In fact, scientific performances offered some very radical ideas at a time when the theatre was still carefully censored.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There can be little doubt that performances were in the college hall; evidence, however, is lacking.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Scripts, however, eventuate in plays, which are performances, not texts.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The hypotheses investigated in these validity studies specify the anticipated relationships of the test under investigation with other tests or quantifiable performances.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Scores for context sensitive vowels and consonants were significantly interrelated even when performances at the phonemic and word-specific levels were controlled.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

An alternative approach to context sensitivity is to devise distinct measures of performances on context sensitive spellings.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Thus, as one would expect, performances were generally poorest in the poor encoders.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Artefacts that do not have the qualities required for the performances of the commemorative ceremonies have much less chance of being preserved, promoted, and studied.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In attempting this, ritual performances are most effective due to their formalised character.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The nature of the feedback given to these performances is also critically important.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Final-year students are involved in the assessment of first- and second-year performances.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Although predominantly mentioned with respect to academic work, there were also mentions of positive feedback received from first performances.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The specific issue concerning women's participation in polyphonic performances will be returned to later.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The different methods give the different performances under different conditions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of performance

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with performance

performance

These are words often used in combination with performance.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

academic performance

The relationship of life change to academic performance among selected college freshmen at varying levels of college readiness.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

acoustic performance

Furthermore, mimetic aspects affected the relationships between acoustic performance and electroacoustic media, including fixed and live electronic components.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

actual performance

The actual performance effect will depend both on the application and on the network latency and bandwidth characteristics.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all collocations with performance

Translations of performance

in Chinese (Traditional)

做, 工作情況, 業績…

Meaning of performance in English

performance noun (ACTIVITY)

performance noun (ENTERTAINMENT)

performance | American Dictionary

performance noun (DOING)

performance | Business English

See also

Examples of performance

Collocations with performance

performance

Translations of performance

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