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
Amari Cooper improvised to give the ball back to his athletic quarterback.
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Michael Nowels, The Mercury News, 2 Dec. 2024
Walker can improvise and reverse field with the best of them, but Seattle’s run game would benefit from the third-year running back hitting the plays as designed more often.
—Michael-Shawn Dugar, The Athletic, 21 Nov. 2024
In response, the Church improvised to allow people to go to confession with innovative solutions like drive-up confessions.
—Nate Trela, USA TODAY, 27 Nov. 2024
Though they were encouraged to play around and improvise, Menzel says that nod to her original performance was scripted by Schwartz.
—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 25 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for improvise 
Michael Nowels, The Mercury News, 2 Dec. 2024
Walker can improvise and reverse field with the best of them, but Seattle’s run game would benefit from the third-year running back hitting the plays as designed more often.
—Michael-Shawn Dugar, The Athletic, 21 Nov. 2024
In response, the Church improvised to allow people to go to confession with innovative solutions like drive-up confessions.
—Nate Trela, USA TODAY, 27 Nov. 2024
Though they were encouraged to play around and improvise, Menzel says that nod to her original performance was scripted by Schwartz.
—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 25 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for improvise
Recent Examples of Synonyms for improvise
Verb
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Campus police had no effective plan to work with external law enforcement and failed to take command on the night of the melee — leading the LAPD and the California Highway Patrol to devise an ad hoc response.Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times, 12 Dec. 2024
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Following the previous example, the team that devised the solution did not start with that change in mind.Hunter McMahon, Forbes, 4 Dec. 2024
Verb
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While serving in Joe Biden’s Justice Department, the special counsel concocted a novel legal case against Biden’s foremost political opponent and would have been happy to try Donald Trump in the midst of the presidential election campaign.Rich Lowry, National Review, 10 Dec. 2024
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Reminiscent of the classic strawberry frosted sprinkle donut, Dunkin' concocted a sugar cookie iced to perfection with vibrant pink frosting and rainbow sprinkles.Sophia Beams, Better Homes & Gardens, 4 Dec. 2024
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
Thesaurus Entries Near improvise
Cite this Entry
“Improvise.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/improvise. Accessed 22 Dec. 2024.
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