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

Announcing the acquisition, the National Portrait Gallery called Charli "one of the defining artists of our time".

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

Department of Justice, which found its acquisition of Warner Bros.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026

However, SAP cut its outlook for the year, citing a €100 million impact from the acquisition of data platforms Prior Labs and Dremio.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026

“The live question in 2026 is acquisition: where the books came from, who paid for them, and what the company knew about their provenance when it hit download,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

He began to apply the basic principles of language acquisition to music learning, and called his method the mother-tongue approach.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin

The company can’t pursue significant acquisitions, asset sales or certain content and distribution deals without Paramount’s consent.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026

Investors seem to be worried about the scope of the company’s spending on infrastructure and acquisitions to support the development of generative artificial intelligence technology.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026

For this to happen, the analysts said they would want the company to prioritize organic growth as opposed to completing large acquisitions and to finalize the deals that were delayed in the previous quarter.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026

If approved by shareholders, the deal would be the latest in a line of acquisitions to deplete the number of listed businesses on the London Stock Exchange.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

I was interviewing for a paralegal position in the mergers and acquisitions department of a prestigious multi-national corporate law firm.

From "Proud" by Ibtihaj Muhammad

Related Words

• addition
• gain
• procurement
• purchase
• recovery