Progress and Return

Progress

Progress noun - Forward movement in time or place.
Usage example: we're making slow progress against this stiff headwind

Return is an antonym for progress.

Return

Return verb - To go back to a previous and usually lower state or level.
Usage example: vowed to do anything to keep the recovering alcoholic from returning to his dissolute ways

Progress is an antonym for return.

Nearby Words: returned, returning, returnable, returnee, returner

How words are described

good good progress good return
better better progress better return
true true progress true return
actual actual progress actual return
Other adjectives: real, great, little, slight, quick, few, later, last, recent.

Common collocations

power progress power return power
area progress area return area
amount progress amount return amount
way progress way return way

Both words in one sentence

  • Film / Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Part of the reason Khan is so pissed at Kirk is because when he was exiled Kirk promised to return and check on the colony's progress someday (in "Space Seed" Kirk said he'd "come back in 100 years"), but never did and forgot all about him.
  • Video Game / Kingdom Hearts coded Sora will occasionally come across various glitches that impede his progress, requiring entering locations called System Sectors to fix the glitches and return the world to normal.
  • Thus, Alex and the others do receive an epiphany, but this epiphany allows them to progress into heaven, and not to return to the living.
Cite this Source
Return and Progress. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 21, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/progress/return
Progress & Return. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/progress/return>.
Return or Progress. 2016. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/progress/return.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "progress" and "return" have occurred on timeline