achieve
Americanverb (used with object)
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achieves,
present (3rd person singular)
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achieved,
past participle, past
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achieving
present participle
verb (used without object)
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achieves,
present (3rd person singular)
-
achieved,
past participle, past
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achieving
present participle
verb
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to bring to a successful conclusion; accomplish; attain
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to gain as by hard work or effort
to achieve success
Synonym Usage
See do 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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achievernoun
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superachievernoun
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outachieveverb (used with object)
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achievableadjective
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preachievedadjective
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unachievableadjective
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unachievedadjective
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well-achievedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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achievesimple
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achievessimple
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have achievedperfect
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has achievedperfect
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am achievingprogressive
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are achievingprogressive
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is achievingprogressive
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have been achievingperfect progressive
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has been achievingperfect progressive
Past
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achievedsimple
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had achievedperfect
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was achievingprogressive
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were achievingprogressive
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had been achievingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of achieve
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English acheven, from Old French achever “to finish,” from phrase a chef “to (the) head,” i.e., “to conclusion”; see chief
Explanation
If you achieve something, you've reached a goal. Achievements aren't accidents. If you stumble upon a treasure chest, you haven't achieved something; however, achieving a promotion to become CEO is another story. If someone asks you to give an example of the word achieve, you can always reach for Shakespeare's much quoted remark from his play Twelfth Night. In Act II, Scene V, the character Malvolio says, ". . . some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em." Pundits like to throw that quote around when talking about politicians. Of course, they usually disagree about if, when, and how the politician achieved greatness.
Vocabulary lists containing achieve
The AP English Exam: The Language of the Test
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Beowulf vocabulary
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Workshop 1, Part 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The European Union's top commerce official said that it was crucial to achieve "tangible outcomes" in talks set to wrap up in China on Friday.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
They have questioned what his comments to the BBC were designed to achieve, and said it had put the Independent Football Regulator in a difficult position.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
By being connected actively to the experiences that our customers have, we’re able to feel empathy that many business owners don’t necessarily have the ability to achieve.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
On advanced reasoning benchmarks, Beam can achieve comparable scores to GLM-5.2 with three to four times less processing computing, according to Reflection.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026
The way to achieve the ultimate liberation through lifelessness is to cease paying heed to the illusion of reality.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
If it achieves that, the spacecraft will then attempt to deploy satellites designed to expand the company's already massive satellite internet constellation.
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
To compound matters, the masculine ego trap also tells a man that he’s not worthy of what he wants until he achieves some nebulous milestone that, again, sets him apart from other men.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
The rub here is that there’s a difference between a film that becomes a cult classic because it’s genuinely underrated, and one that achieves that status through the unholy, rose-colored lens of social media obsession.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2026
Yet however avant-garde in form, Saramago’s prose achieves an expert fluidity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
Dee’s main objective for the day seems to be making Juan laugh, which she achieves in less than two hours.
From "Ask the Passengers" by A.S. King
Occasionally executioners even achieved a kind of celebrity status.
From Slate ● Oct. 9, 2026
"A lot has been achieved in a short period of time", said Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, a law professor at the University of Amsterdam who served as a legal expert in proceedings before all three courts.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
Novartis achieved positive results with its ianalumab drug candidate last year, but prior to that there had been no meaningful innovation in the disease for more than two decades, they added.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
“Our epic deployment ends today and what this team achieved is amazing,” Keeler said Thursday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
The battles seesawed back and forth, favoring first one side then the other, while neither side achieved a decisive victory and the casualties mounted.
From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman
"We are working on it. For us, South Korea is an important country. And I really hope for momentum, continuation, and concrete results that we are truly achieving with them," he said.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
“Justice requires more than achieving certain results,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Canadian provinces had looked poised to put American alcoholic products back on their store shelves last month as Trump and Canadian officials appeared close to achieving a new trade deal.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026
In a paper published in October 2025 called "Artificial Writing and Automated Detection", researchers at the University of Chicago found Pangram "achieving near-zero error rates" on medium-to-long extracts.
From Barron's ● Sep. 25, 2026
The only problem with school, for the kids who aren’t achieving, is that there isn’t enough of it.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
