acquisition
Americannoun
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the act of acquiring or gaining possession.
the acquisition of real estate.
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something acquired; addition.
public excitement about the museum's recent acquisitions.
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the purchase of one business enterprise by another.
the acquisition of a rival corporation;
mergers and acquisitions.
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Linguistics. the act or process of achieving mastery of a language or a linguistic rule or element.
child language acquisition; second language acquisition.
noun
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the act of acquiring or gaining possession
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something acquired
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a person or thing of special merit added to a group
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astronautics the process of locating a spacecraft, satellite, etc, esp by radar, in order to gather tracking and telemetric information
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
- acquisitional adjective
- acquisitor noun
- preacquisition noun
- proacquisition adjective
- reacquisition noun
- superacquisition noun
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; acquire ) + -iō -ion
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Paramount has undergone a swift transformation under Chief Executive David Ellison following his family’s acquisition of the company last summer.
From Los Angeles Times
Hollywood personalities never liked either acquisition, of course.
IonQ has been on an acquisition spree, snapping up companies specializing in atomic clocks to quantum sensors and, most recently, semiconductors.
From Barron's
Josh Gruenbaum, a senior GSA acquisitions official recruited through Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, assured government officials that the government platform of Grok was separate from the public one.
The newly formed company would then merge with Texas Ventures Acquisition III, a special purpose acquisition company.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
