access

American  

[ak-ses] / ˈæk sɛs /

noun

• accesses
  plural

1. 

   the ability, right, or permission to approach, enter, speak with, or use; admittance.

   They have access to the files.

2. a way or means of approach.

   The only access to the house was a rough dirt road.

3. the state or quality of being approachable.

   Located deep in the woods on an island with no dock, the cabin was difficult of access.

4. Theology. approach to God through Jesus Christ.

5. an attack or onset, as of a disease or symptom.

   Some influenza patients experience attacks for many weeks after the primary access.

   In a violent access of coughing I fractured one of my ribs.

6. a sudden, strong burst of emotion.

   In an access of clumsy tenderness, he tried to dry the tears that trembled on her eyelashes.

7. accession.

8. public-access television.

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verb (used with object)

• accesses,
  present (3rd person singular)
• accessed,
  past participle,  past
• accessing
  present participle

1. to make contact with or gain access to; be able to reach, approach, enter, etc..

   Bank customers can access their checking accounts instantly through the online portal.

2. Computers. (of a program or system component) to retrieve (data) for use by another program or application or for transfer from one part of the system to another.

   This key enables other applications to access data from within the event management system even if you aren't logged in.

adjective

1. Television. (of programming, time, etc.) available to the public.

   Six channels now offer access services.

access British  

/ ˈæksɛs /

noun

1. the act of approaching or entering

2. the condition of allowing entry, esp (of a building or room) allowing entry by wheelchairs, prams, etc

3. the right or privilege to approach, reach, enter, or make use of something

4. a way or means of approach or entry

5. the opportunity or right to see or approach someone

   she fights for divorce and free access to her children

6. (modifier) designating programmes made by the general public as distinguished from those made by professional broadcasters

   access television

7. a sudden outburst or attack, as of rage or disease

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verb

1. to gain access to; make accessible or available

2. (tr) computing

   1. to obtain or retrieve (information) from a storage device

   2. to place (information) in a storage device See also direct access sequential access

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• preaccess
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• accesses
  plural

Participles

• accessing
  present
• accessed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• access
  simple
• accesses
  simple
• have accessed
  perfect
• has accessed
  perfect
• am accessing
  progressive
• are accessing
  progressive
• is accessing
  progressive
• have been accessing
  perfect progressive
• has been accessing
  perfect progressive

Past

• accessed
  simple
• had accessed
  perfect
• was accessing
  progressive
• were accessing
  progressive
• had been accessing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will access
  simple
• will have accessed
  perfect
• will be accessing
  progressive
• will have been accessing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of access

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English accesse, from Old French acces or directly from Latin accessus “an approach,” equivalent to acced-, variant stem of accēdere “to accede ” + -tus suffix of verb action

Explanation

Most libraries provide computers you can use to access the Internet. If chemicals are being stolen from a lab, you might ask who has access to the lab. Access is approaching or making use of something, or the ability to do so Sometimes the word is applied to a person. If you work in the same room as your boss, you might have easy access to her. A really good boss will work hard to make herself accessible to her employees. Access is from Middle English, from Middle French acces "arrival," from Latin accessus "an approach," from accedere "to approach."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

access accesses accessed accessing

Being on site helps reporters cultivate sources and break news, which in turn helps inform those of us who don’t have access to the building.

From Slate ● Sep. 21, 2026

For many parents, however, a Little Genius smartwatch feels safer than a smartphone with unrestricted access to the internet.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026

Other monetization opportunities that intrigue Wall Street include the company’s newly introduced Meta Model API, which marks the first time Meta has charged developers and enterprise users for access to its underlying models.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 21, 2026

Federal Court in Washington, D.C. asking for a temporary restraining order that restores their access immediately while the case is heard.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026

“I know you can only access farming information, Roz. So let us handle the research. There has to be a way for you to safely escape. But we’ll need time to figure out a plan.”

From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown

Harvey said it accesses closed models through APIs provided by model providers and authorized cloud providers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026

If the system makes a match, it accesses the individual’s associated tax file and pulls the address listed during the most recent tax period.

From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2025

"Trimingham beach is a really remote location and there aren't any nearby beach accesses so they were put there to move things around like concrete, steel sheet piles and timber."

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2024

“A private Gmail account — just because the employee accesses it from their office or their work computer — doesn’t become less private,” she said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2024

She had wild accesses of rage within the secrecy of her own chamber, in that my lord who simpered on the wall should have wrecked her life so utterly.

From My Lords of Strogue, Vol. I (of III) A Chronicle of Ireland, from the Convention to the Union by Lewis Wingfield

Google’s Gemini model accessed the internet and hacked other companies during a test of its cybersecurity capabilities, the first known example of the company’s artificial-intelligence systems autonomously committing such an act.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

In July, OpenAI disclosed that AI systems being tested for cybersecurity capabilities had found their way outside a supposedly isolated environment and accessed systems belonging to Hugging Face, an open-source AI platform.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026

It is understood court staff accessed the files without approval and the data breach was discovered during a review of digital systems.

From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026

For a limited number of people, the information accessed included sensitive and personal data, but the MOJ did not state how many people were affected.

From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026

Treebaun changed the screen to a diagram of Ford’s Theatre and did a quick overview of all the ways the top balcony could have been accessed before turning on my repercussion track.

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

There are further restrictions around accessing material containing personal information, that is business-sensitive, or has not yet been appraised, according to the congregation's access policy.

From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026

The sixth possible approach listed by Laforge is analyzing the bitcoin adoption cycle, but he noted that this is not an exact science and should involve accessing multiple different measuring techniques.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026

Lapses by a safety-testing company resulted this summer in a swarm of OpenAI agents breaking out of a testing “sandbox,” accessing the internet and hacking into the machine-learning platform Hugging Face.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026

He was barred that following morning from accessing the facility, and according to the filing, informed by USC that he’d been kicked off the team, without any prior investigation.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026

I don’t know many of the people here, but that’s not a failure of accessing.

From "Every Day" by David Levithan

Related Words

• approach
• connection
• entry