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

The lawsuit by California’s Rob Bonta and 11 other state attorneys general to block the acquisition of Warner Bros.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

PayPal CEO Enrique Lores on Tuesday said that the company does not comment on market speculation or potential merger talks, but didn’t dismiss the possibility of an acquisition.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026

Sales in the Asia-Pacific region drove quarterly growth, rising by 17% on year after the acquisition of the store network of optical retailer Top Charoen, which owns around 2,000 stores in Thailand.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

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

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

Interest in the marble piece arises from the unusual circumstances attending its acquisition by the museum and from the belief that it may be the work of the Italian Renaissance master, Michelangelo.

From "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E.L. Konigsburg

At Regeneron, George Yancopoulos is the rare scientist and executive who drives growth with discoveries instead of acquisitions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 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

The firm has remained an active dealmaker by shifting to an independent sponsor model, raising capital for new acquisitions as recently as 2024.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

Officials of the Metropolitan Museum of Art report that 100,000 people climbed the great stairway to catch a glimpse of one of its newest acquisitions, a twenty-four-inch statue called “Angel.”

From "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E.L. Konigsburg

Related Words

• addition
• gain
• procurement
• purchase
• recovery