Other forms: acquisitions
An acquisition is something you have got hold of - and also the getting of it. The museum's newest acquisition, a small Dutch painting, hangs by the door with a card beside it.
In business the word has hardened into one meaning: one company buying another outright. Whole departments are called mergers and acquisitions, and an acquisition is announced, agreed and completed. In its plain sense it nearly always takes OF - the acquisition of land, the acquisition of new skills, the acquisition of data. Children go through language acquisition, which is the slow gathering of a first language without lessons. It is a formal word: you buy a kettle, you do not make an acquisition at the corner shop. The verb underneath it is acquire, with that awkward cq in the middle.
1noungainingThe act of getting or gaining something.~38%
“The acquisition of a second language takes years of listening.”
synonyms: gaining
2nounpurchaseSomething that has been bought or obtained, especially something valued.~2%
“The gallery's latest acquisition cost more than the building.”
synonyms: purchase
3nounacquisitionThe buying of one company by another.~60%
“The acquisition was announced in March and completed by June.”
synonyms: takeover
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 26 sentences found in the wild and placed 26 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
acquisition is an act of getting something.
Also accepted in games: takeover
Acquisition came through Old French acquisicion from Latin acquisitio, the noun built on the verb acquiro. English already had acquire from the same Latin verb, so the noun is really acquire with a Latin ending fastened on.
Latin
acquisītiō
Old French
acquisicion
English, today
acquisition
From Middle English -, borrowed from Old French acquisicion, from Latin acquisītiō, from acquīrō; equivalent to acquire + ition.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA