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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

achieve.

To carry out or conclude (something, as a task) successfully; to accomplish.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/əˈt͡ʃiːv/Received-Pronunciation/əˈt͡ʃiv/General-American
  1. To carry out or conclude (something, as a task) successfully; to accomplish.

    transitive
    to achieve one’s goals
    Hannah achieved her lifelong dream of winning a medal at the Olympics.
  2. To gain or obtain (a desired objective, result, etc.) through effort or skill; to succeed in attaining (an objective, result, etc.); to win.

    transitive
  3. To obtain (a physical thing); to get.

    transitive
  4. To end or finish (something); to terminate; (specifically, military) to win (a battle or war).

    obsolete · transitive
  5. To attain a goal; to succeed in something, now especially in academic performance; (generally) to make an effort; strive.

    intransitive
    He could really achieve in school if he worked hard.
  6. Followed by to: to attain a certain position, status, etc.

    archaic · intransitive · literary
  7. To come to an end; conclude, end; also, to result, to turn out; or (uncommon) to be affected by fate in a certain way.

    intransitive · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English achieven, acheven (“to accomplish (something); to acquire or obtain (something); to carry out or finish (something); to succeed in (something); to happen, turn out”), from Anglo-Norman achever, achiever, Middle French achever, achiever, and Old French achever, achiever (“to accomplish (something); to finish (something); to succeed in (something)”) (modern French achever), and then from either of the following: * Old French a- (prefix denoting addition or increase, or a change of state) + chief (“end; head”) (compare traire a chief (“to be finished”), venir a chief (“to accomplish (something)”); and Late Latin ad caput venire (“to complete (something)”)) + -er (a variant of -ier (suffix forming verbs). Chief is derived from Vulgar Latin capus, from Latin caput (“head”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *káput (“head”), possibly from *kap- (“head”). * Late Latin *accapāre, the present active infinitive of *accapō (“to finish”), from Latin ad- (prefix meaning ‘to’) + *capum (from caput (“head”); see further above) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). cognates * Catalan acabar * Late Latin achevare, acheviare (“to acknowledge feudal liability; to complete, end”) * Old Occitan acabar (modern Occitan acabar) * Portuguese acabar * Spanish acabar

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.