praxis

See also: Praxis

English

Etymology

Partly from Latin prāxis and partly from its etymon Ancient Greek πρᾶξις (prâxis, “action, activity, practice”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹæk.sɪs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• IPA^(key): /ˈpræk.səs/
• Rhymes: -æksɪs
• Hyphenation: prax‧is

Noun

praxis (countable and uncountable, plural praxes or praxises)

1. The practical application of any branch of learning.

   Synonym: practice

   Antonym: theory

2. (drama) The deliberate action of a rational being.
3. (philosophy) The synthesis of theory and practice, without presuming the primacy of either.
   • 1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume III: The Breakdown, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozkład (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 101:

     […] in the particular case of the proletarian consciousness, the social process and awareness of that process became one and the same, and knowledge of society coincided with the revolutionary praxis that transformed it.

4. Custom or established practice.
5. An example or form of exercise, or a collection of such examples, for practice.

Derived terms

• cacopraxis
• echothanatopraxia
• eupraxis
• heteropraxis
• orthoprax
• orthopraxis
• parapraxis
• radiopraxis
• thanatopraxis
• zoopraxiscope

Related terms

• praxeology
• praxic

Translations

practical application of learning

• Bulgarian: практика (bg) f (praktika)
• Catalan: praxi f
• Czech: praxe (cs) f
• Finnish: käytäntö (fi)
• French: praxis (fr) f
• Hungarian: praxis (hu)
• Portuguese: práxis (pt) f
• Spanish: praxis (es) f

drama: deliberate action of a rational being

• Finnish: ihmistoiminta, praksis

philosophy: synthesis of theory and practice

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 實踐 / 实践 (zh) (shíjiàn)

• Finnish: praksis
• Portuguese: práxis (pt) f

custom or established practice

• Bulgarian: обичай (bg) (običaj)
• Czech: praxe (cs) f
• Danish: praksis c
• Finnish: käytäntö (fi)
• French: habitude (fr)
• Portuguese: praxe (pt) f
• Russian: обычай (ru) (obyčaj), устоявшаяся практика (ustojavšajasja praktika)

example or form of exercise for practice

• Finnish: harjoitus (fi), harjoite (fi)

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek πρᾶξῐς (prâxĭs).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpraːk.sɪs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈprak.sis]

Noun

prāxis f sg (genitive prāxis or prāxeōs or prāxios); third declension (only attested once classically, otherwise Medieval Latin)

1. practice, method, practical experience
   • c. 27 CE – 66 CE, Petronius, Satyricon 39.5:

     Nam mihi nihil novi potest afferri, sicut ille fer[i]culus †ta mel† habuit praxim.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. action, activity, doing, a carrying out, putting into practice
3. an habitual or customary mode of action, method, technique
4. a carrying on or exercise of one's profession or occupation

Declension

Third-declension noun (Greek-type, i-stem), singular only.

	singular
nominative	prāxis
genitive	prāxis prāxeōs prāxios
dative	prāxī
accusative	prāxim prāxin prāxem1
ablative	prāxī prāxe1
vocative	prāxis prāxi

¹Found sometimes in Medieval and New Latin.

Descendants

• Italian: prassi

References

• “praxis” on page 1,451/1 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)
• R. E. Latham, D. R. Howlett, & R. K. Ashdowne, editors (1975–2013), “praxis”, in Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources‎^[1], London: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, →ISBN, →OCLC
• "PRAXIM", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “praxis”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 1,234/1.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek πρᾶξις (prâxis).

Noun

praxis n (uncountable)

1. praxis

Declension

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	praxis	praxisul
genitive-dative	praxis	praxisului
vocative	praxisule

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɾaɡsis/ [ˈpɾaɣ̞.sis]
• Rhymes: -aɡsis
• Syllabification: pra‧xis

Noun

praxis f (plural praxis)

1. praxis

Related terms

• mala praxis

Further reading

• “praxis”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
• Seco, Manuel; Andrés, Olimpia; Ramos, Gabino (2023), “praxis”, in Diccionario del español actual [Dictionary of Current Spanish] (in Spanish), third digital edition, Fundación BBVA

Swedish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /¹praksɪs/, [ˈpʰrakːsɪs]

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

praxis c

1. practice, custom, the usual way to do things

   teori och praxis ― theory and practice

2. case law, previous court decisions as a base for legal judgement

   Hovrättens dom strider mot Europadomstolens praxis. ― The verdict of the court of appeal is in conflict with the practice of the European Court of Human Rights.

See also

• praktik
• rättsfall

References

• “praxis”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “praxis”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “praxis”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)