acquired
Americanadjective
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obtained or procured, such as by purchasing, receiving, learning.
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Medicine/Medical. (of a disease or condition) developed by the patient at some point after birth.
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Biology. (of a trait) developed by an organism in response to its environment; not inherited.
Other Word Forms
Explanation
The adjective acquired describes something you're not born with: you gain or develop it later in life, like your acquired taste for coffee. Acquired comes from the Latin word acquirere, meaning "to seek in addition to. Something acquired is something you have gotten, not something you always had. For example, you may have acquired the habit of buying lots...and lots of sneakers after getting a job in a shoe store. Or, if you have an acquired habit of reading novels, this is something that developed over time. After all, you weren't born reading!
Vocabulary lists containing acquired
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 12–15
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Evolutionary Biology - Adaptation
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STAAR Biology: Biological Evolution and Classification
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Walgreens was taken private that August by the private equity firm Sycamore Partners, which acquired it the previous month.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
Luxus sold 52, or 93%, of the handbags acquired for its first fund.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
Ippolito called the company, only to find out that it had been acquired in December by Wedding Gown Preservation Co. “and apparently with that, all of their files are gone.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
Early this year, in a $1.25-trillion deal, SpaceX acquired his artificial-intelligence company xAI, which had built two advanced data centers in Tennessee and Mississippi that Musk wants to expand.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
They were of a respectable family in the north of England; a circumstance more deeply impressed on their memories than that their brother’s fortune and their own had been acquired by trade.
From "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
