acquisition

[ ak-wuh-zish-uh n ]
/ ˌæk wəˈzɪʃ ən /

noun

the act of acquiring or gaining possession: the acquisition of real estate.
something acquired; addition: public excitement about the museum's recent acquisitions.
the purchase of one business enterprise by another: the acquisition of a rival corporation; mergers and acquisitions.
Linguistics. the act or process of achieving mastery of a language or a linguistic rule or element: child language acquisition; second language acquisition.

Origin of acquisition

1375–1425; Middle English adquisicioun, a(c)quisicion < Latin acquīsītiōn- (stem of acquīsītiō), equivalent to acquīsīt(us), past participle of acquīrere to acquire + -iōn- -ion

OTHER WORDS FROM acquisition

Example sentences from the Web for acquisition

British Dictionary definitions for acquisition

acquisition
/ (ˌækwɪˈzɪʃən) /

noun

the act of acquiring or gaining possession
something acquired
a person or thing of special merit added to a group
astronautics the process of locating a spacecraft, satellite, etc, esp by radar, in order to gather tracking and telemetric information

Word Origin for acquisition

C14: from Latin acquīsītiōn-, from acquīrere to acquire

Medical definitions for acquisition

acquisition
[ ăk′wĭ-zĭshən ]

n.

The empirical demonstration in psychology of an increase in the strength of the conditioned response in successive trials in which the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli are paired.