Other forms: attainments
An attainment is something reached by effort, or the reaching of it. Educational attainment, high attainment, attainment levels.
In schools it is the technical word for what a pupil has achieved, as against progress, which is how far they have come, and the difference matters enormously in judging a school. In the plural it means somebody's accomplishments.
1nounattainmentSomething reached by effort, or the reaching of it.
“The school celebrates academic attainment with a prize-giving every summer.”
attainment is an achievement.
From attain plus -ment, from Old French ateindre, to reach.
Proto-Indo-European
*teh₂g- — to grasp; to touch
Latin
attingere
Vulgar Latin
*attangere
Old French
ataindre
Anglo-Norman
ataindre
Middle English
atteinen
English
attain
English, today
attainment
Built from
From attain + -ment; compare Old French ataignement. attain The is derived from Middle English atteinen, atteynen (“to achieve, attain; to be adequate or sufficient; to affect; to come or get to (a place), reach; to corrupt, taint; to overcome, overpower; to overtake; to succeed; to tamper with; (law) to bring to justice, punish”), from ataign-, a of Anglo-Norman ataindre, and Old French ataindre, attaindre (“to reach”) (modern French atteindre), from Vulgar Latin attangere, from Latin attingere, the of attingō (“to come into contact with, touch; to affect; to arrive at, reach; etc.”), from ad- (appearing as at- due to assimilation with the following t, inducing) + tangō (“to grasp, touch; to arrive at, reach; to attain; etc.”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European teh₂g- (“to grasp; to touch”)). a doublet of attainder and attinge. The is derived from the verb.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA