access

American  

[ak-ses] / ˈæk sɛs /

noun

accesses plural

1. the ability, right, or permission to approach, enter, speak with, or use; admittance.

   They have access to the files.

2. a way or means of approach.

   The only access to the house was a rough dirt road.

3. the state or quality of being approachable.

   Located deep in the woods on an island with no dock, the cabin was difficult of access.

4. Theology. approach to God through Jesus Christ.

5. an attack or onset, as of a disease or symptom.

   Some influenza patients experience attacks for many weeks after the primary access.

   In a violent access of coughing I fractured one of my ribs.

6. a sudden, strong burst of emotion.

   In an access of clumsy tenderness, he tried to dry the tears that trembled on her eyelashes.

7. accession.

8. public-access television.

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verb (used with object)

accesses, present (3rd person singular) accessed, past participle, past accessing present participle

1. to make contact with or gain access to; be able to reach, approach, enter, etc..

   Bank customers can access their checking accounts instantly through the online portal.

2. Computers. (of a program or system component) to retrieve (data) for use by another program or application or for transfer from one part of the system to another.

   This key enables other applications to access data from within the event management system even if you aren't logged in.

adjective

1. Television. (of programming, time, etc.) available to the public.

   Six channels now offer access services.

access British  

/ ˈæksɛs /

noun

1. the act of approaching or entering

2. the condition of allowing entry, esp (of a building or room) allowing entry by wheelchairs, prams, etc

3. the right or privilege to approach, reach, enter, or make use of something

4. a way or means of approach or entry

5. the opportunity or right to see or approach someone

   she fights for divorce and free access to her children

6. (modifier) designating programmes made by the general public as distinguished from those made by professional broadcasters

   access television

7. a sudden outburst or attack, as of rage or disease

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verb

1. to gain access to; make accessible or available

2. (tr) computing

   1. to obtain or retrieve (information) from a storage device

   2. to place (information) in a storage device See also direct access sequential access

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• preaccess
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• accesses
  plural

Participles

• accessing
  present
• accessed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• access
  simple
• accesses
  simple
• have accessed
  perfect
• has accessed
  perfect
• am accessing
  progressive
• are accessing
  progressive
• is accessing
  progressive
• have been accessing
  perfect progressive
• has been accessing
  perfect progressive

Past

• accessed
  simple
• had accessed
  perfect
• was accessing
  progressive
• were accessing
  progressive
• had been accessing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will access
  simple
• will have accessed
  perfect
• will be accessing
  progressive
• will have been accessing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of access

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English accesse, from Old French acces or directly from Latin accessus “an approach,” equivalent to acced-, variant stem of accēdere “to accede ” + -tus suffix of verb action

Explanation

Most libraries provide computers you can use to access the Internet. If chemicals are being stolen from a lab, you might ask who has access to the lab. Access is approaching or making use of something, or the ability to do so Sometimes the word is applied to a person. If you work in the same room as your boss, you might have easy access to her. A really good boss will work hard to make herself accessible to her employees. Access is from Middle English, from Middle French acces "arrival," from Latin accessus "an approach," from accedere "to approach."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

access accesses accessed accessing

“PCAC’s meeting confirms what we’ve said all along: Patients deserve a safe, regulated pathway for clinically needed therapies like these peptides through licensed compounding pharmacies. The alternative is access with no oversight at all.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026

The county is also taking steps to expand access to landfills beyond normal operating hours to allow Lineage to remove noxious debris around the clock.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

Speaking to reporters on a visit to Sheffield, the prime minister said: "My instincts are that we need to find ways of not reducing access to jury trial."

From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026

But no one ever knows in advance which fund will end up on top—and individual investors aren’t likely to have access to the best private performers anyway.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026

“I am here on board business, at the chairman’s urgent request. I require access to your office. I need to see the files.”

From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood

Doing so accesses the car’s maximum torque of over 1,000 Newton-meters—793 lb-ft.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026

So, if you wanted to exclude Netflix, you’d have to know all the domains it accesses to get it to work properly, which isn’t always practical.

From Salon ● Mar. 21, 2026

The government said the taskforce will advise on ways to make the tech sector more representative and "ensure the UK accesses the full talent pool, market opportunities, and innovation capacity needed for economic growth".

From BBC ● Dec. 15, 2025

Some of my favorite gags just sparked to life for an instant, like an all-knowing supercomputer who is a bit put out that Elio accesses its wisdom simply to learn how to fight.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2025

But I speak not this, O my God, as preparing a way to my relapse out of presumption, but to preclude all accesses of desperation, though out of infirmity I should relapse.

From Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel by Donne, John

Anthropic evaluated more than 141,000 "evaluation runs" and found that three different versions of its model, known as Claude, improperly accessed the systems of three unnamed organizations.

From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026

In a March 2019 piece in the Daily Beast, De Becker said his team concluded that Saudi Arabia accessed and gained private information from Bezos’ phone.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

In 2025, it claimed, the defendants hacked into the mobile device of a producer who had collaborated with Grande and accessed unreleased masters, demos and footage from recording sessions.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

OpenAI said two of its artificial intelligence models broke out of a test environment, accessed the internet and hacked Hugging Face.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

I selected both vidfeed cameras and accessed their configuration settings.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

“They care more about what they see on our streets — whether people are getting into housing, accessing the care they need, and being accountable for how their tax dollars are being spent.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

Another 40,000 or so said the proposal “prevents investors like me from accessing information about companies; lets companies hide behind closed doors; and allows fraud to fester.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026

Their request is usually about accessing their parent’s account.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026

In June, the government announced plans to prevent under-16s from accessing major platforms including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and X, with the measures expected to come into force in spring 2027.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026

By accessing the Sight, he could sense both worlds at once.

From "The Reader" by Traci Chee

Related Words

• approach
• connection
• entry