acquisition

American  

[ak-wuh-zish-uhn] / ˌæk wəˈzɪʃ ən /

noun

• acquisitions
  plural

1. the act of acquiring or gaining possession.

   the acquisition of real estate.

2. something acquired; addition.

   public excitement about the museum's recent acquisitions.

3. the purchase of one business enterprise by another.

   the acquisition of a rival corporation;

   mergers and acquisitions.

4. Linguistics. the act or process of achieving mastery of a language or a linguistic rule or element.

   child language acquisition; second language acquisition.

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acquisition British  

/ ˌækwɪˈzɪʃən /

noun

1. the act of acquiring or gaining possession

2. something acquired

3. a person or thing of special merit added to a group

4. astronautics the process of locating a spacecraft, satellite, etc, esp by radar, in order to gather tracking and telemetric information

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Usage

What does acquisition mean? Acquisition most commonly means the process of obtaining something or the thing that is obtained. It is a noun form of the verb acquire, which most commonly means to get, buy, or learn. Acquire and acquisition have a lot of meanings that vary with context. Most of them refer to the act of getting something permanently. Acquisition is commonly used to refer to a company that is acquired by another company. It’s especially used this way in the phrase mergers and acquisitions. It’s also used in a specific way in the context of linguistics: language acquisition is the process of becoming fluent in a language. Example: The company announced plans for the acquisition of its largest competitor, raising concerns about it becoming a monopoly.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• acquisitor
  noun
• preacquisition
  noun
• reacquisition
  noun
• superacquisition
  noun
• acquisitional
  adjective
• proacquisition
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• acquisitions
  plural

Etymology

Origin of acquisition

First recorded in 1375–1425; Middle English adquisicioun, a(c)quisicion, from Latin acquīsītiōn-, stem of acquīsītiō, from acquīsīt(us) “acquired” (past participle of acquīrere; see acquire) + -iō -ion

Explanation

An acquisition is something you acquire — a book, a skill or if you are a mogul, a company. It describes things you have purchased, things you have learned, or things you have gotten. Acquisition has a formal sense to it. We don't talk about our new jeans as our latest acquisition, unless we are the kind of person who refers to their latest copy of Vogue as their Bible. It is very commonly used to refer to paintings purchased by museums — in fact, large museums have acquisition departments.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

acquisition acquisitions

Find insight on Nvidia’s upcoming earnings, Descartes Systems’ recent acquisition and more in the latest Market Talks covering technology, media and telecom.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026

Diaz, the team’s biggest offseason acquisition, had elbow surgery early in the season and was out from April to late July.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026

Monte dei Paschi would have to simultaneously manage the integration of Mediobanca, the combination with Banco BPM and the acquisition of Banca Generali, which is more complex than Intesa Sanpaolo’s rival takeover offer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

The French food and drink firm said the acquisition will help it grow in the nutrition sector, while for Huel it will help the brand's growth ambitions and drive its international expansion.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

Europe had grown prosperous after the Thirty Years’ War, spurring a demand for luxury and worldly acquisition.

From "The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science" by Joyce Sidman

De Zerbi gave debuts to four of his new acquisitions in Andrew Robertson, Marcos Senesi, Jan Paul van Hecke and Sandro Tonali.

From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. earlier this year moved to make it easier for private-equity investors to get involved in acquisitions of failed banks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026

The industry in general is looking at mergers and acquisitions as a way to scale up and bring costs down, he added.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026

In an era of public offerings and rich acquisitions, the Lodge family has kept a tight grip on the handle of its cast-iron business since 1896.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

From the mid-1970s to the end of the 1980s, the amount of money involved in mergers and acquisitions every year on Wall Street increased 2,000 percent, peaking at almost a quarter of a trillion dollars.

From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell

Related Words

• addition
• gain
• procurement
• purchase
• recovery