Practice

Most commonly, practice is a learning method, the act of rehearsing a behavior over and over, or engaging in an activity again and again, for the purpose of improving or mastering it, as in the phrase "practice makes perfect". Sports teams practice to prepare for actual games. Playing a musical instrument well takes a lot of practice.

Sessions scheduled for the purpose of rehearsing and performance improvement are called practices. They are used by sports teams, bands, individuals, etc. "He went to football practice everyday after school," for example.

Practice may also be working to achieve something, like a goal.

A practice refers to a way that something is done (e.g., conventional medical practice).

The name practice may also be used to refer to certain profession-based businesses (e.g., law practice, medical practice).

In British English, the verb form of this is "to practise". The noun form everywhere, and the verb form in American English is always spelled "practice".

Work practices
Work practices are ways of structuring that are things one must do, or ways in which something is done. They are not implemented by technologies, but are usually conceived by intelligent humans, though not necessarily. In contrast technologies are things that one can usually buy.

Examples of work practices include
 * processes
 * patterns
 * decision
 * benchmarks

Social practices
Social practices are related to customs for how various people enact various works or events.

Practices are also related to custom as used in the legal phrase "customs and practices" to refer to how people customarily conduct their business.

The article "diffusion (anthropology)" discusses how social practices spread from culture to culture. Diffusion of innovations theory examines the factors that spur adoption or rejection of new social practices.