These words refer to acts that give impetus to something already under way. Further is the most neutral of these in indicating any sort of action of effect, intentional or not, whether stemming from the primary agent involved or from an outside person, force or factor: needing a rich patron to further his career; a pleasant voice that, without his realizing it, furthered the good impression he made on other people. The word can as easily be applied to undesirable developments: crisis conditions that furthered the spreading of hysterical rumours. Push is used informally to indicate a furthering of one’s chances by the good offices or influence of another: He promised to push their case when it came before the committee. Advance has more force than further and thus is useful for stressing intentional and decisive effort to further something desirable: selfless patriots who advance the cause of freedom. Despite these positive overtones, the word can be used, with the same increase in force, for undesirable developments: malnutrition that only advanced the progress of the disease. Here, in fact, the word suggests the speeding up of a harmful process. Advance does not carry this added weight in some of its milder uses, where it simply indicates a moving forward, putting forward, or giving before hand: armies advancing through the city; advancing his suggestion timidly; advancing part of next week’s allowance.

Contribute contrasts sharply with the foregoing by suggesting secondary factors that give helpful but not crucial assistance to something solidly under way. Further and advance can conceivably suggest aid without which no more forward movement would result. This is far less true of contribute : recalling the lucky accidents that had contributed to her hard-earned success. The secondary factors suggested by the word may derive from intentional or fortuitous acts or from established characteristics of the subject involved, as well as from external causes: internal weaknesses that contributed to the empire’s rapid decline. Implement is a fad word in governmental or sociological parlance for the act of making more effective those arrangements that exist in theory, though not always in fact: taking steps to implement the long-standing ban against press censorship. Sometimes, the word seems to suggest the putting into effect of newly established programmes, or the enforcement of decisions that have been newly arrived at: implementing the new clearway regulations.