Exercise refers to any activity designed to develop or hone a skill or ability. It commonly describes activity intended to improve physical, or sometimes mental, strength and fitness, a setting in action or practicing; employment in the proper mode of activity; exertion; application; use, and the performance of an office, ceremony, or duty, which gives the term a broader and more practical sense than a single short definition would suggest. Depending on context, it can also point to that which gives practice; a trial; a test, to exert for the sake of training or improvement; to practice in order to develop, and to perform physical activity for health or training, so the category can cover literal uses, related ideas, and more figurative extensions of the same core meaning. Taken together, these meanings present Exercise as a flexible theme rather than a narrowly technical label, covering the central idea people usually mean when they use the word while still leaving room for closely related senses that appear in real language. Additional shades of meaning include to use (a right, an option, etc.); to put into practice and to set in action; to cause to act, move, or make exertion; to give employment to, which reinforce how the category can stretch across adjacent but still recognizable uses of the same term.
