proof of concept

noun

plural proofs of concept

: something that demonstrates the feasibility of a concept (such as a product idea or a business plan)

Even if it succeeds, the $5.9 billion reactor will be just a proof of concept, with commercial fusion power still decades away.

—Corey S. Powell

Malware and virus-writing used to be something hobbyist hackers did for fun, as proofs of concept. Not anymore.

—Mat Honan

—often hyphenated when used before another noun

No invention is worth anything without the proof-of-concept prototype.

—Shintaro Osano

… proof-of-concept experiments funded with public money and years away from any commercial application, were sponsored by university biology departments.

—Andrew Curry

Examples of proof of concept in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Looking back now, Barbarian feels like the proof of concept for the director’s even bigger 2025 hit, Weapons. —Travis Bean, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2025

Hold on to your ballots: these titles tend to come from political figures or their spouses, authors who beam themselves into flawless family units as proofs of concept for broader political convictions. —Sloane Crosley, New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2025

In its current state, Krasa thinks, the inner speech neural prosthesis is a proof of concept. —Jacek Krywko, ArsTechnica, 23 Aug. 2025

In a recent preprint, which serves as a proof of concept for the approach, the researchers trained a robot to complete seven manipulation tasks, such as picking up a piece of bread and placing it on a nearby plate. —Gwendolyn Rak, IEEE Spectrum, 19 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1967, in the meaning defined above