Home / Words / implementNo. 0181

implement

/ˈɪmplɪment/·verb, noun

to put a plan, decision, or system into actual effect
Fig. 1 — The blueprint has been right about everything so far, and still it is only paper.
01Definition

To implement is to move a plan from paper into the world — the verb of the gap between deciding and doing. Latin implere meant 'to fill up', and implementum was whatever filled a need; the English noun still means a working tool, especially a farm implement. The verb inherits that practicality: a policy is implemented when offices, budgets and habits actually change, and a strategy that no one implements achieves nothing, however elegant the document.

02In use
  • iThe city implemented its parking reforms within a year of approving them.
  • iiIt is one thing to design a curriculum and another to implement it in a real classroom.
  • iiiThe bank implemented new checks to verify every customer's identity.
03Collocations
  • implement a policy
  • implement changes
  • fully implemented
  • implement a plan
  • implement reforms

Family implementation (noun) · implement (noun — a tool)

04Relations

=execute, enact, apply, carry out, realize

≠abandon, shelve

06TOEFL & IELTS

Listen for the last vowel: the verb ends in a full /-ment/ (imple-MENT), the noun in a reduced /-mənt/ — the same noun/verb pattern as document and supplement, and a favourite Listening trap. In Writing Task 2 this is the government-topic workhorse: 'governments should implement policies to…' upgrades a flat 'make rules'. The noun means a tool (farm implements), which surprises learners who only know the verb; implementation is the process noun.

07Asked
What is an implement, as a noun?
A working tool, especially a simple outdoor one — dictionaries' standard example is farm implements: ploughs, hoes, rakes. The noun is centuries older than the sense most learners meet first, and it explains the verb: an implement is what you pick up when planning ends and work begins. Kitchen implements and writing implements follow the same pattern.
Are the noun and verb 'implement' pronounced differently?
Yes, in the final syllable: the verb keeps a full vowel that rhymes with went — /ˈɪmplɪment/ — while the noun reduces it to a schwa, /ˈɪmplɪmənt/. Main stress stays on the first syllable in both, so the difference is easy to miss at speed; compliment plays exactly the same trick, which makes the pair worth drilling aloud.
What is the difference between implement and execute?
Implement is about putting a plan into operation; execute is about carrying an action through to completion. You implement a policy over months of budgets and hiring; a soldier executes an order, a programmer executes code — single acts done to the end. In much business writing they overlap, but implement keeps the flavour of installing something that will then keep running.
What does 'implement a policy' actually involve?
Everything between the vote and the visible result: assigning budgets, writing regulations, training staff, changing forms and habits. That is why researchers talk about an 'implementation gap' — the distance between what a law says and what offices do, exactly the distance the scene above closes block by block between the pinned drawing and the standing hut.
Is implementation a noun or a verb?
A noun — the act or process of putting something into effect: 'the implementation of the reforms took three years.' The verb is implement. There is no verb 'to implementate', a form learners sometimes invent by back-formation; if you need an -ing form, implementing does the job.
What does implement mean in programming?
To write the concrete code that makes a specification real: a developer implements a feature, an algorithm, or an interface. The usage is the ordinary meaning applied to software — the design exists as a description, and implementing it is building the thing described. It is standard technical English, safe to use in any CV or technical essay.