acquire

verb

Simple meaning

To gain, usually by one's own exertions.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

uhkwyer

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US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

əkˈwaɪɚ

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

transitive
To gain, usually by one's own exertions; to get as one's own.
medicine
To become affected by an illness.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B1 · Intermediate
Frequency: Common
Typical Use: Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To gain, usually by one's own exertions; to get as one's own.

To 'acquire' means to gain possession of something, often through effort or purchase. It suggests a more deliberate or formal process than simply 'getting' something, often for valuable items or skills.

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

Business news
“The company plans to acquire a smaller competitor next quarter.”
Education and skills
“Students work hard to acquire new knowledge and abilities.”
Personal achievements
“She hopes to acquire enough wealth to retire early.”

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use acquire

“I acquired a passing knowledge of Chinese.”verb
“I acquired a strong aversion to television.”verb

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

acquire knowledgeacquire land

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

acquiringnounInflected form
The act of acquiring something.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

acquired reflexnounCompound term
An acquired response that is under the control of (conditional on the occurrence of) a stimulus.
acquired immune deficiency syndromenounCompound term
A serious (often fatal) disease of the immune system transmitted through blood products especially by sexual contact or contaminated needles.
acquired hemochromatosisnounCompound term
Hemochromatosis resulting from repeated transfusions or from excessive intake of foods containing iron.
acquired tastenounCompound term
A preference that is only acquired after considerable experience.
acquired immunitynounCompound term
Immunity to a particular disease that is not innate but has been acquired during life.

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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.