acquisition
noun
Simple meaning
Something you get or buy, or the act of getting it.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
akwuhzishuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ækwəˈzɪʃən
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.
noun
The act or process of acquiring.
The thing acquired or gained; a gain.
The act of contracting or assuming or acquiring possession of something
The cognitive process of acquiring skill or knowledge
computing
The process of sampling signals that measure real world physical conditions and converting these signals into digital numeric values that can be manipulated by a computer.
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: The act or process of acquiring.
This is the general sense of 'acquisition,' referring to the broad process of gaining or obtaining something. It's often used for things that require effort or strategy, like 'language acquisition' or 'data acquisition.'
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where you'll really hear it
Child development
“Language acquisition is a complex process for young children.”
Science and research
“The team focused on data acquisition for their new experiment.”
Learning new skills
“Skill acquisition takes consistent practice and dedication.”
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use acquisition
- “The acquisition of wealth.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
An ability that has been acquired by training.
That which completes, perfects, or equips thoroughly.
The cognitive process of acquiring skill or knowledge.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Contract governing the merger of two or more companies.
System of language acquisition focusing intensively on listening and speaking.
A shipboard system for the detection and identification and location of a target with enough detail to permit effective weapon employment.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: act or process of acquiring
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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.