acquisition

American  

[ak-wuh-zish-uhn] / ˌæk wəˈzɪʃ ən /

noun

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

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

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; acquire ) + -iō -ion

Example Sentences

This was the first quarter of consolidation of Mediobanca within Monte Paschi’s earnings and many one-off items related to the acquisition led to a messy set of results, the analysts say.

From The Wall Street Journal

The property was registered under the name of only one of the partners to make the paperwork during the acquisition faster, since they were not married or related by blood.

From BBC

The acquisition might be a way to make up lost ground, seeing as Orna partly is focused on developing therapies for B cell-driven autoimmune diseases.

From Barron's

Investment banking - the wheeling and dealing side of the financial industry, which looks after mergers, acquisitions and stock market launches - is also notorious for long hours.

From BBC

Despite their eager embrace of AI technology as a whole, police departments remain opaque about many specific acquisitions, often shielding their contracts with private capital from public scrutiny.

From Salon

Related Words

• addition
• gain
• procurement
• purchase
• recovery