as in to devise
to perform, make, or do without preparation
since the award was a complete surprise, I improvised an acceptance speech
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Recent Examples of improvise
The show, partly scripted and partly improvised, relies heavily on audience participation and a willingness to be vulnerable.
—
Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times, 10 June 2026
That turn of phrase, which gives both the band’s eighth album and lead track its title, This Mirror Weighs a Ton, frankly doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, and that’s sort of the point since Banks came up with it while improvising the melodies and vocals simultaneously.
—Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 9 June 2026
Just like the show's writers, movers know how to improvise.
—Noel Brennan, CBS News, 9 June 2026
No two film or TV shoots are alike, as each director and team of department heads have to find their own unique rhythm that falls somewhere on a spectrum between meticulous storyboarding and completely improvising on set.
—Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 6 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for improvise
Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times, 10 June 2026
That turn of phrase, which gives both the band’s eighth album and lead track its title, This Mirror Weighs a Ton, frankly doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, and that’s sort of the point since Banks came up with it while improvising the melodies and vocals simultaneously.
—Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 9 June 2026
Just like the show's writers, movers know how to improvise.
—Noel Brennan, CBS News, 9 June 2026
No two film or TV shoots are alike, as each director and team of department heads have to find their own unique rhythm that falls somewhere on a spectrum between meticulous storyboarding and completely improvising on set.
—Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 6 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for improvise
Recent Examples of Synonyms for improvise
Verb
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Security firm Varonis devised an exploit chain that was able to catapult over these guardrails.—
Dan Goodin,
ArsTechnica,
16 June 2026
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The researchers were Stanford psychologists carrying out an experiment on impulse control devised by Walter Mischel.—
Ian Bogost,
The Atlantic,
16 June 2026
Verb
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Every detail is accurate, though the picture as a whole is an invention, concocted from multiple views, locations, and studies.—
Susan Tallman,
The Atlantic,
13 June 2026
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Investigators believed Simko met one of the suspects at a cannabis festival in Ann Arbor, where the suspects reportedly concocted a plan to set up a fake business deal and steal what officials said was upwards of 50 pounds of marijuana.—
DeJanay Booth-Singleton,
CBS News,
12 June 2026
Verb
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The future, instead, seems to belong to the teams and coaches who are willing to be a little more flexible and see their role as providing a platform on which their players might extemporize.—
Rory Smith,
New York Times,
3 Mar. 2023
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Friends said he was talented and could extemporize about anything.—
Jacques Kelly,
Baltimore Sun,
24 Jan. 2023
Cite this Entry
“Improvise.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/improvise. Accessed 22 Jun. 2026.
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