progressiveness

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

“progressiveness” is listed under Progressive.

Origin: Cf. F. progressif.

1. Moving forward; proceeding onward; advancing; evincing progress; increasing; as, progressive motion or course; — opposed to retrograde.

2. Improving; as, art is in a progressive state.

3. U. S. History Of or pertaining to the Progressive party.

4. Favoring improvement, change, progress, or reform, especially in a political context; — used of people. Contrasted with conservative.

☞ The term progressive is sometimes used to describe the views of a politician, where liberal might have been used at one time, in communities where the term liberal has come to connote extreme views.

5. Disposed toward adopting new methods in government or education, holding tolerant and liberal ideas, and generally favoring improvement in civic life; — of towns and communities.

Progressive euchre or Progressive whist, a way of playing at card parties, by which after every game, the losers at the first table go to the last table, and the winners at all the tables, except the first, move up to the next table. — Progressive muscular atrophy Medicine, a nervous disorder characterized by continuous atrophy of the muscles.

— Pro·gress′wb-a1′>′ive·ly, adverb — Pro·gress′wb-a1′>′ive·ness, noun

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54