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

Adobe’s monthly active users in the latest quarter, including 100 million for the “freemium” products it offers to drive customer acquisition and long-term revenue.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

This means steep price hikes implemented shortly after an acquisition are counted as organic growth.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

The DOJ ultimately approved Paramount’s planned acquisition, despite opposition from some industry stakeholders.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

IonQ’s acquisition of SkyWater Technology prompts a raise to its guidance and facilitates the production of new quantum chips.

From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026

In addition to Burkhart’s testimony, White had testified to Ramsey’s confession, and witnesses had described Hale’s fraudulent acquisition of the insurance policy.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

After a decade of acquisitions and expansions by Spencer, Sharma is cutting output and focusing on key franchises she thinks have room to grow, like “Elder Scrolls” and “Halo.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026

Following two trial misses and a third clinical setback, analysts fear Novartis may miss its 2030 growth targets without further acquisitions.

From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026

This is money that can be deployed through additional investments, acquisitions, dividend increases or share buybacks.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 8, 2026

Shortly afterward, I received the standard email from the library listing my new acquisitions and their due dates.

From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2026

Neal moved to Ascend Communications, which built little boxes to terminate Internet signals and was acquired by Lucent Technologies in 1999 for $24 billion, one of the largest acquisitions in history.

From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel

Related Words

• addition
• gain
• procurement
• purchase
• recovery