acquisition

[ak-wuh-zish-uhn]

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.

acquisition

/ 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

Other Word Forms

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of acquisition¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of acquisition¹

C14: from Latin acquīsītiōn-, from acquīrere to _acquire

Example Sentences

The team focused on what was most successful on the service before Reich’s acquisition.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The separation will effectively unwind what was once the biggest acquisition in J&J’s history.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

SYDNEY—Catapult Sports is looking to its latest acquisition to help lower-tier soccer teams target the billions of dollars that the sport’s giants splurge each year on player transfers.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Biotech stocks, spurred by the Pfizer deal and by a wave of recent acquisitions, have been climbing steeply in recent weeks.

Read more on Barron's

Maine passed a law placing a one-year moratorium on private-equity acquisitions of hospitals.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• addition 
• gain 
• procurement 
• purchase 
• recovery 

When To Use

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.