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.
Odafe Oweh, acquired during the 2025 season in a trade with Baltimore, will play for the Washington Commanders this season.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
The Manchester Odyssey was acquired in Egypt by art collector and Conservative MP Lord Balcarres in 1900.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
For much of the novel, we inhabit the consciousness of Lok, a young male Neanderthal who hasn’t yet acquired the habits of abstraction on which narrative usually depends.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
Gabelli took over as the portfolio manager of the Keeley Small Cap Fund after Gabelli Asset Management acquired Chicago-based Keeley-Teton Advisors in May 2025.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
Shepherd was an acquired taste: He told tales in novelistic form about his childhood in the Midwest, his life in the army, and his adult misadventures in New York City.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
Definitions 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.
