advancement

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A forward step; an improvement.
• noun Development; progress.
• noun A promotion, as in rank.
• noun The act of moving forward.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In surgery, an operation for strabismus, consisting in dividing the tendon of the healthy muscle, bringing the end forward, and fastening it to the eyeball forward of its former point of insertion.
• noun The act of moving forward or proceeding onward or upward.
• noun The act of promoting, or state of being promoted; preferment; promotion in rank or excellence; improvement; furtherance.
• noun 3. Settlement on a wife; jointure. Bacon.
• noun In law, provision made by a parent for a child during the parent's life, by gift of property on account of the share to which the child would be entitled as heir or next of kin after the parent's death.
• noun 5. The payment of money in advance; money paid in advance.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act of advancing, or the state of being advanced; progression; improvement; furtherance; promotion to a higher place or dignity.
• noun An advance of money or value; payment in advance. See Advance, 5.
• noun (Law) Property given, usually by a parent to a child, in advance of a future distribution.
• noun obsolete Settlement on a wife, or jointure.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The act of advancing, or the state of being advanced; progression; improvement; furtherance; promotion to a higher place or dignity; as, the advancement of learning.
• noun An advance of money or value; payment in advance.
• noun law Property given, usually by a parent to a child, in advance of a future distribution.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the act of moving forward (as toward a goal)
• noun encouragement of the progress or growth or acceptance of something
• noun gradual improvement or growth or development