By broad definition in Collins English Dictionary, the word "improvisation" describes:

1. the act or an instance of improvising
2. a product of improvising; something improvised

If you "improvise", you make or do something using whatever you have or without having planned it in advance. When performers improvise, they invent actions, music and words as they play, sing, or speak.

Of course, what you to improvise,

it's unlikely that a musician who sets out to improvise jazz chords and find themselves

 what does "improvisation" mean to us?  (And shouldn't "improv" have a "V"?)

We can probably all agree that "improvisation" is a bit of a mouthful.  So, when improvisers around the world talk about what they do, it's only its only natural that should develop a shorthand.  But how you say "improvisation", and what you shorten it to, depends entirely on where in the world you are: 

sounds, and how you shorten Depending on where in the world you are, "improvisation" will sound different — and the shorthand will

🇺🇸   IMPROV in the US, you're likely to say "imprav-is-a-tion", and shorten to "improv"

🇬🇧   IMPRO in the UK, the pronunciation is closer to "impro-vi-sa-tion", so it would seem obvious to say "impro". And yet, "improv" seems to have taken the world by storm

both "IMPRO" and "IMPROV" are shorthands of