performance

noun

• 1an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment:Don Giovanni had its first performance in 1787
• a person’s rendering of a dramatic role, song, or piece of music:Bailey gives a sound performance as the doctor
• [in singular] informal a display of exaggerated behavior or a process involving a great deal of unnecessary time and effort; a fuss:he stopped to tie his shoe and seemed to be making quite a performance of it

• 2the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function:the continual performance of a single task reduces a man to the level of a machine
• an action, task, or operation, seen in terms of how successfully it was performed:pay increases are now being linked more closely to performance a dynamic performance by Davis
• the capabilities of a machine, vehicle, or product, especially when observed under particular conditions:the hardware is put through tests that assess the performance of the processor
• the extent to which an investment is profitable, especially in relation to other investments.
• (also linguistic performance) Linguistics an individual’s use of a language, i.e., what a speaker actually says, including hesitations, false starts, and errors. Often contrasted with competence.