Search

the act of or gaining possession:
the acquisition of real estate.
something ; addition:
public excitement about the museum’s recent acquisitions.
the purchase of one business enterprise by another: the acquisition of a rival corporation;
mergers and acquisitions.
Linguistics. the act or process of achieving mastery of a language or a linguistic rule or element:
child language acquisition; second language acquisition.
Contemporary Examples

Whoever pulled the trigger (so to speak) on this acquisition may have just been caught up in the moment.
Why Does My Kids’ Elementary School Need a Tank? Andy Hinds September 12, 2014

They like both the acquisition and performance of muscled masculinity.
Zac Efron’s Eyes Are Up Here, Ladies Tim Teeman April 14, 2014

“EOTS is a poster child for one of the ills of the acquisition process,” the official said.
Newest U.S. Stealth Fighter ‘10 Years Behind’ Older Jets Dave Majumdar December 25, 2014

Last year, the company raised funding at a $2 billion valuation and shot down a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook.
‘The Snappening’ Is Real: 90,000 Private Photos and 9,000 Hacked Snapchat Videos Leak Online Marlow Stern October 12, 2014

But no one expected the police chief to call a press conference announcing its acquisition.
The Mayor McCrack Show Jonathan Goldsbie October 31, 2013

Historical Examples

When he held such an acquisition unconstitutional, he had not thought he would live to want Louisiana.
Problems of Expansion Whitelaw Reid

But to the acquisition of Florida too much importance can not be attached.
United States Presidents’ Inaugural Speeches Various

He departed therefore from the island, much dissatisfied at having missed the acquisition of so much treasure by his own fault.
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VI Robert Kerr

Love may have been a still stronger motive for its acquisition.
Heroes of the Telegraph J. Munro

It may hold in it the clue to the acquisition of great faculties, hitherto regarded as forbidden to mere mortals.
Real Ghost Stories William T. Stead

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
n.

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 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.