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.
The move, which was first reported by Just Baseball, marked the third time in a little over a year that the Dodgers have acquired Rortvedt.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
Mr. El-Sayed and his wife also own between $882,000 and $2.2 million in assets, which include three rental properties, one of which his wife recently acquired in Dubai.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
People whose disease remained clinically stable tended to have genetically 'steady' blood cell populations that acquired few or no additional mutations.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026
Brookfield, which owns 51% of Westinghouse, and Cameco, which owns the other 49%, acquired the company in late 2023 in a deal valued at around $8 billion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Following the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens acquired the technology, the organisational skills, and perhaps even the vision necessary to break out of Afro-Asia and settle the Outer World.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
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.
