acquaintance

[ uh-kweyn-tns ]

See synonyms for: acquaintance acquaintances on Thesaurus.com

noun

a person known to one, but usually not a close friend.
the state of being acquainted or casually familiar with someone or something: As far as I know, no one of my acquaintance has traveled around the world.

personal knowledge as a result of study, experience, etc.: a good acquaintance with French wines.
(used with a plural verb) the persons with whom one is acquainted.

Origin of acquaintance

1250–1300; Middle English aqueinta(u)nce, acoyntaunce<Old French acointance.See acquaint, -ance

Also ac·quaint·ance·ship (for defs. 2, 3) .

synonym study For acquaintance

1. Acquaintance, associate, companion, friend refer to a person with whom one is in contact. An acquaintance is someone recognized by sight or someone known, though not intimately: a casual acquaintance. An associate is a person who is often in one's company, usually because of some work, enterprise, or pursuit in common: a business associate. A companion is a person who shares one's activities, fate, or condition: a traveling companion; companion in despair. A friend is a person with whom one is on intimate terms and for whom one feels a warm affection: a trusted friend.

Other words for acquaintance

3	familiarity, awareness

See synonyms for acquaintance on Thesaurus.com

Other words from acquaintance

non·ac·quaint·ance, noun
non·ac·quaint·ance·ship, noun
pre·ac·quaint·ance, noun
pseu·do·ac·quaint·ance, noun
re·ac·quaint·ance, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use acquaintance in a sentence

Police say they believe the younger suspect used the acquaintanceship to draw her into the house, where she was strangled.
Was Autumn Pasquale Killed Over a Bicycle? Teen Brothers Charged | Michael Daly | October 24, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
Nor, my heavy and immobile appearance notwithstanding, was I (I affirm this) a solitary because I was refused acquaintanceship.
In Accordance with the Evidence | Oliver Onions
But it was one thing to strike up an acquaintanceship in Liverpool, and quite another to continue that acquaintanceship elsewhere.
Mushroom Town | Oliver Onions
What he meant by the first half of the statement was, no doubt: "Now we meet only on terms of polite acquaintanceship."
Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician | Frederick Niecks
But how needlessly Lady Eleanor Darcy must have lowered herself to incur such acquaintanceship!
The Knight Of Gwynne, Vol. II (of II) | Charles James Lever

There was always about her a certain defensive reserve the moment the limits of acquaintanceship had been reached.
Murder in Any Degree | Owen Johnson

British Dictionary definitions for acquaintance

acquaintance

/ (əˈkweɪntəns) /

noun

a person with whom one has been in contact but who is not a close friend
knowledge of a person or thing, esp when slight

make the acquaintance of to come into social contact with
those persons collectively whom one knows
philosophy the relation between a knower and the object of his knowledge, as contrasted with knowledge by description (esp in the phrase knowledge by acquaintance)

Derived forms of acquaintance

acquaintanceship, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with acquaintance

acquaintance

see nodding acquaintance; scrape up an acquaintance.

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