accept
verb
Simple meaning
To agree to take something offered, or to agree that something is true.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
aksehptSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ækˈsɛpt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To receive, especially with a consent, with favour, or with approval.
Admit into a group or community
transitive
To admit to a place or a group.
transitive
To receive as adequate or satisfactory.
transitive
To receive or admit to; to agree to; to assent to; to submit to.
transitive
To regard as proper, usual, true, or to believe in.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To receive, especially with a consent, with favour, or with approval.
To 'accept' means to receive something willingly or agree to something. It can be an offer, a gift, or a situation. A common trap is confusing it with 'except,' which means 'excluding.'
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where you'll really hear it
Job interview
“I am pleased to accept your job offer.”
Customer service
“We can accept returns within 30 days of purchase.”
Personal chat
“She found it hard to accept the difficult news.”
Nearby words
- consent , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use accept
- “People did not accept atonal music at that time.”verb
- “I shall have to accept these unpleasant working conditions.”verb
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
In the formation of a coordinate bond it is the compound to which electrons are donated.
The mental attitude that something is believable and should be accepted as true.
Worthy of acceptance or satisfactory.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A collection of rules and procedures and conventions that define accepted accounting practice.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A statistical procedure for accepting or rejecting a batch of merchandise or documents.
Banking: a time draft drawn on and accepted by a bank.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.