attain.
To come to or reach (a place) by motion or progression.
Meaning & usage
To come to or reach (a place) by motion or progression.
To arrive at (a certain age or time, condition or state, etc.); to reach.
To gain (a desired result or other objective) through effort; to accomplish, to achieve.
To attain such a high level of proficiency requires hours of practice each day.
To gain possession of (something tangible or intangible) through effort; to acquire, to obtain.
To reach (someone) after being behind them.
To find out (information, knowledge, etc.); to ascertain, to get at.
Often followed by to. To come to or reach a place by motion or progression; to reach.
Often followed by to. To arrive at a certain condition or state, etc.
Often followed by to. To gain possession of something tangible or intangible through effort.
Often followed by to. To come to or reach a position without moving from one place to another.
Often followed by to. To extend or reach from one position to another; to stretch.
Often followed by to. To find out information, knowledge, etc.
Often followed by to. To gain a desired result or other objective through effort.
Often followed by to. Of a person: to live to a certain age or time.
Often followed by to. Of a thing: to befall, to happen to someone.
Where this word comes from
The verb 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 stem of Anglo-Norman ataindre, and Old French ataindre, attaindre (“to reach”) (modern French atteindre), from Vulgar Latin *attangere, from Latin attingere, the present active infinitive of attingō (“to come into contact with, touch; to affect; to arrive at, reach; etc.”), from ad- (prefix indicating a nearing or reaching) (appearing as at- due to assimilation with the following t, inducing gemination) + tangō (“to grasp, touch; to arrive at, reach; to attain; etc.”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- (“to grasp; to touch”)). Doublet of attainder and attinge. The noun is derived from the verb.
Synonym of attainment. An act of arriving at or reaching; an act of obtaining by effort.
Synonym of attainment. That which is obtained by effort.
Where this word comes from
The verb 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 stem of Anglo-Norman ataindre, and Old French ataindre, attaindre (“to reach”) (modern French atteindre), from Vulgar Latin *attangere, from Latin attingere, the present active infinitive of attingō (“to come into contact with, touch; to affect; to arrive at, reach; etc.”), from ad- (prefix indicating a nearing or reaching) (appearing as at- due to assimilation with the following t, inducing gemination) + tangō (“to grasp, touch; to arrive at, reach; to attain; etc.”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- (“to grasp; to touch”)). Doublet of attainder and attinge. The noun is derived from the verb.
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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.