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

Less positively, they say they can’t tell whether the acquisition materially moves Netwealth ahead of peers or how sustainable the offering will be in the face of artificial-intelligence-driven competition.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026

Hopeful return: Ramón Laurenano, a 2025 trade deadline acquisition with a potent bat, last played May 30 because of hip inflammation.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026

That role was cut short, however, by Prada's acquisition of the flashy luxury label famous for its Medusa logo, owned by Capri Holdings Limited.

From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026

Agility also confirmed it still intends to go public by the end of the year through a special-purpose acquisition company deal that would value it at $2.5 billion.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026

A tingle rushes up my arm at the acquisition.

From "Warcross" by Marie Lu

That’s a good cushion in a downturn, but it’s also a sign the leadership can’t find acquisitions big enough and good enough for them to buy.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026

The company could reset its content-spending plans, which would take time; license live-sports broadcasts; or return to mergers and acquisitions after abandoning its bid for Warner Bros.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026

Through acquisitions of other tech firms, the company has assembled a portfolio of 17 owned properties totaling more than 2.2 million square feet, according to CoStar data.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026

The main concern for investors at this point should be about valuation and growth prospects if funding for acquisitions gets harder to come by.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

With a handshake, Durant gave Howard sole distributorship of Buick as well as GM’s new acquisitions, National and Oldsmobile, for all of the western United States.

From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand

Related Words

• addition
• gain
• procurement
• purchase
• recovery