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:

a recent acquisition to the museum.

Linguistics. the act or process of achieving mastery of a language or a linguistic rule or element:

child language acquisition; second language acquisition.

Origin

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

Related forms

acquisitional, adjective

acquisitor

[uh-kwiz-i-ter] /əˈkwɪz ɪ tər/ (Show IPA), noun

preacquisition, noun

proacquisition, adjective

reacquisition, noun

superacquisition, noun

Examples from the web for acquisition

Of course, showing that a copycat theory of language acquisition can't explain these strange patterns in child speech is easy.
Lastly, that expansion space is now largely ensured by the Smithsonian's acquisition of a building currently under construction.
For in the use of riches there are still greater dangers than in the acquisition.
But that's just another corporate acquisition.
Locke advocates the moral education of children rather than a pedantic focus on the mere acquisition of facts.
Yahoo has said that it kept both services going after the acquisition because they appealed to different audiences.
Solar energy is a clearly superior alternative to agressive acquisition of limited energy sources.
The acquisition is subject to approval by regulators and shareholders.
With the acquisition of a new e-book database, 53 percent of the library's collection will consist of online material.
The news of the acquisition was announced from the stage Tuesday morning.

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

C14: from Latin acquīsītiōn-, from acquīrere to acquire

Word Origin and History for acquisition

late 14c., "act of obtaining," from Old French acquisicion (13c.) or directly from Latin acquisitionem (nominative acquisitio), noun of action from past participle stem of acquirere "get in addition, accumulate," from ad- "extra" (see ad-) + quaerere "to seek to obtain" (see query (v.)). Meaning "thing obtained" is from late 15c. The vowel change of -ae- to -i- in Latin is due to a Latin phonetic rule involving unaccented syllables in compounds.

acquisition in Medicine

acquisition ac·qui·si·tion (āk'wĭ-zĭsh'ən)
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.