achieve
Americanverb (used with object)
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achieves,
present (3rd person singular)
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achieved,
past participle, past
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achieving
present participle
verb (used without object)
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achieves,
present (3rd person singular)
-
achieved,
past participle, past
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achieving
present participle
verb
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to bring to a successful conclusion; accomplish; attain
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to gain as by hard work or effort
to achieve success
Synonym Usage
See do 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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achievernoun
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superachievernoun
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outachieveverb (used with object)
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achievableadjective
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preachievedadjective
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unachievableadjective
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unachievedadjective
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well-achievedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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achievesimple
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achievessimple
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have achievedperfect
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has achievedperfect
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am achievingprogressive
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are achievingprogressive
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is achievingprogressive
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have been achievingperfect progressive
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has been achievingperfect progressive
Past
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achievedsimple
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had achievedperfect
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was achievingprogressive
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were achievingprogressive
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had been achievingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of achieve
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English acheven, from Old French achever “to finish,” from phrase a chef “to (the) head,” i.e., “to conclusion”; see chief
Explanation
If you achieve something, you've reached a goal. Achievements aren't accidents. If you stumble upon a treasure chest, you haven't achieved something; however, achieving a promotion to become CEO is another story. If someone asks you to give an example of the word achieve, you can always reach for Shakespeare's much quoted remark from his play Twelfth Night. In Act II, Scene V, the character Malvolio says, ". . . some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em." Pundits like to throw that quote around when talking about politicians. Of course, they usually disagree about if, when, and how the politician achieved greatness.
Vocabulary lists containing achieve
The AP English Exam: The Language of the Test
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Beowulf vocabulary
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Workshop 1, Part 1
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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.
See Examples For:
"The only way we can achieve that is by supporting our transport authority SPT - Strathclyde Partnership for Transport - to progress its plans to bring the bus network into public control."
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
“To achieve this, we must further simplify our organisation, improve efficiency, and build greater resilience,” the spokesperson said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026
Alexis adds, "If we want to achieve long-term control of peoples' tumors and prevent tumor relapse, we have to focus on these dormant quiescent cancer cells, and have to understand more about them."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 6, 2026
Values such as not killing to achieve their goals.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
In order to arrive at a definitive view, we should be able to survey the entire length of every chain, and that we can never hope to achieve.
From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson
Successfully corralled, Franz earns the degree of doctor of law, and achieves success in the insurance industry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
Neil: Hopefully he helps the team progress and achieves Euro 2028 qualification.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
As the company achieves notable growth — sales more than doubled in the latest quarter — it’s also impressing Wall Street with its profit performance.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026
His film is likable as heck but never quite achieves liftoff.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
A wish that continually approaches but never achieves fulfillment.
From "Everything, Everything" by Nicola Yoon
The telecom operator’s network operating expenditure fell 6% on-quarter in 2Q, thanks to price discounts achieved via through vendor negotiations, prompting the brokerage to cut its 2026-2028 network operating-expenditure forecasts for True by 5%-8%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026
The company said it achieved an accuracy rate of more than 90 percent across seven major types of cancer, and now plans to test in real-world programmes.
From Barron's ● Sep. 7, 2026
“I understand that meaningful atonement is not achieved through an exhibition . . . It is a continuing responsibility, demonstrated through listening, learning and one’s conduct over time.”
From Salon ● Sep. 5, 2026
Bass talked about her efforts to wean L.A. city completely off of coal-generated power, which it achieved in December 2025, and turning the switch on for one of the largest solar projects in the nation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
More than anything, I don’t want to mess up the balance I achieved at the Ranch.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
Take it too far, and you could end up with "orthosomnia" - the clinical term for an obsession with achieving perfect sleep.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
Shvartsman and his associates “arranged meetings” with “contacts and stars” associated with the movie in the hopes of achieving his goal of a pardon, the lawsuit said, though it doesn’t state specifically whom he targeted.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
Germany has a legally binding goal of achieving greenhouse gas neutrality by 2045.
From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026
“This is constraining international students from thriving and achieving success,” Ding said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
The GUTs also predict that at this energy the different spin-'/2 matter particles, like quarks and electrons, would also all be essentially the same, thus achieving another unification.
From "A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking
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.
