practice makes perfect

proverb Practicing or repeatedly doing something will make one become proficient or skillful at it. A: "I just can't seem to get the rhythm of this song quire right." B: "Keep at it—practice makes perfect!" You can't expect to start a new sport and be amazing at it right away. As is always the case, practice makes perfect.

Prov. Cliché Doing something over and over again is the only way to learn to do it well. Jill: I'm not going to try to play the piano anymore. I always make so many mistakes. Jane: Don't give up. Practice makes perfect. Child: How come you're so good at peeling potatoes? Father: I did it a lot in the army, and practice makes perfect.

Frequently doing something makes one better at doing it, as in I've knit at least a hundred sweaters, but in my case practice hasn't made perfect. This proverbial expression was once put as Use makes mastery, but by 1560 the present form had become established.

COMMON People say practice makes perfect to mean that if you practise something enough, you will eventually be able to do it perfectly. It is like learning to ride a bike. You may fall off a few times but practice makes perfect.

The more one does something, the better at it one becomes. This ancient proverb began as use makes perfect. In English it dates from the fifteenth century but probably was a version of a much older Latin proverb. It exists in many languages, so presumably most people agree. Ralph Waldo Emerson almost did: “Practice is nine-tenths,” he wrote (Conduct of Life: Power, 1860). An English writer in the Spectator of May 10, 1902, differed: “Practice never makes perfect. It improves up to a point.”