acquisition

[ ak-wuh-zish-uhn ]
See synonyms for: acquisitionacquisitions on Thesaurus.com

noun
  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.

  1. the purchase of one business enterprise by another: the acquisition of a rival corporation;mergers and acquisitions.

  2. Linguistics. the act or process of achieving mastery of a language or a linguistic rule or element: child language acquisition; second language acquisition.

Origin of acquisition

1
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

Other words from acquisition

  • ac·qui·si·tion·al, adjective
  • ac·quis·i·tor [uh-kwiz-i-ter], /əˈkwɪz ɪ tər/, noun
  • pre·ac·qui·si·tion, noun
  • pro·ac·qui·si·tion, adjective
  • re·ac·qui·si·tion, noun
  • su·per·ac·qui·si·tion, noun

Words Nearby acquisition

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use acquisition in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for acquisition

acquisition

/ (ˌækwɪˈzɪʃən) /


noun
  1. the act of acquiring or gaining possession

  2. something acquired

  1. a person or thing of special merit added to a group

  2. astronautics the process of locating a spacecraft, satellite, etc, esp by radar, in order to gather tracking and telemetric information

Origin of acquisition

1
C14: from Latin acquīsītiōn-, from acquīrere to acquire

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