Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To perform or carry out with success; accomplish. See Synonyms at perform.
- v. To attain with effort or despite difficulty. See Synonyms at reach.
- v. To accomplish something successfully; perform at a standard or above standard level: skills needed to achieve in school.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To perform or execute; accomplish, as some great enterprise; finish; carry on to a prosperous close.
- To gain or obtain, as the result of exertion; bring about, as by effort.
- Synonyms Effect, Accomplish, etc. (see perform), bring about, work out.
- To acquire, win, obtain, get.
- To come to an end.
- To accomplish some enterprise; bring about a result intended.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To carry on to a final close; to bring out into a perfected state; to accomplish; to perform; -- as, to
achieve a feat, an exploit, an enterprise. - v. To obtain, or gain, as the result of exertion; to succeed in gaining; to win.
- v. obsolete To finish; to kill.
WordNet 3.0
- v. to gain with effort
Etymologies
- From Anglo-Norman aschever, Middle French achever, achiever et al., apparently from Late Latin *accappō, from ad ("to") + caput ("head") + -ō (verbal suffix). Compare Catalan, Occitan, Portuguese and Spanish acabar, French achever. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English acheven, from Old French achever, from a chief (venir), (to come) to a head; see chief. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I think public opinion has already hardened, and about the only thing he can realistically hope to achieve is to stop the bleeding in his poll numbers.”
“All Clinton can hope to achieve is to make certain that Obama does not win against McCain. chris”
“Paul Flynn has rushed to Alun Cairn's defence, although all he seems to achieve is to remind us just how ancient he really is:”
“All they seem to achieve is to make martyrs of the likes of Griffin and Irving, surely a daft result if ever.”
“All three of us are very interested in writing and publishing and other creative things, so part of what we hope to achieve is to puttogether a book that we can be proud of.”
“So another part of what we hope to achieve is to bring a really good idea to life – which I think is part of what drives every creative project.”
“I think that a respectable goal that most students would like to achieve is to get criticisms or critiques on some of their most well-developed ideas, stories, essays, artworks, etc.”
“But what we have been able to achieve is to provide more and more care on an ambulatory and community basis.”
“The end result which we are really trying to achieve is to change public attitudes toward our market economy system.”
“Unfortunately no one vehicle or launch system can really hope to achieve everything without waste one way or another, all that you can hope to achieve is to maximize your abilities and eficiency as best you can, in an ideal world the funds would be available to do this in the best possible way but in the current political climate that seems a very long way off but i'm sure that everyone working at grass roots level is trying to do the best they can with the limited resources available.”
Astronaut Office Weighs In (Officially) On Ares/Orion/EELVs - NASA Watch
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘achieve’.
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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*e?e
Words whose last and third-to-last letters are both "e".
here, eke, were, complete, mete, replete, adhere, where, mere, sphere, austere, aesthete and 99 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
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EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
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2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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Prosie: Lincoln's Second Inaugural Ad...
(Given Saturday, March 4, 1865, Washington, D.C.)
Fellow-Countrymen:
At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended a...with all nations, among ourselves, a just and lastin..., cherish, achieve, to do all, for his widow and..., to care for him w..., to bind up the na..., let us strive on ..., with firmness in ..., with charity for all and 169 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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ESL Academic Word List
This is a list of academic words for students learning English as a Second or Foreign Language. It includes 570 word families that often appear in academic texts. It does not include words that are...
collapse, depression, colleagues, invoked, levy, nonetheless, likewise, so-called, ongoing, conceived, forthcoming, integrity and 558 more...
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word list
abandon, ache, augment, avow, atone, approbate, apprehend, abut, apostatize, abase, abash, abate and 155 more...
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1906 Railway Cipher Code
Terms from the Standard Cipher Code of the American Railway Association, 1906. The terms were shorthand for common phrases used in telegraphic communications between station agents and Railway Asso...
abdominal, abetting, abiology, ablative, abnormal, abominate, aboveboard, abrasive, absinth, abstinent, accursed, acetate and 212 more...
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Dxpert's Words
typically, analysis, theorem, definitely, label, absolutely, bored, awkward, unfortunately, drastically, appointment, stopped and 36 more...
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Oxford 3000
Oxford 3000 is a list of the most common 3000 words in the English language publishe by OUP.
The keywords of the Oxford 3000 have been carefully selected by a group of language experts and ex...a, an, abandon, abandoned, ability, able, unable, about, above, abroad, absence, absent, absolute and 65 more...
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to essay
good verbs for essays
incorporate, paint, project, present, utilize, enable, impact, influence, itemize, deduce, specify, list and 51 more...
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Sık kullanılanlar
assume, achieve, transcend, attack, attach, appoint, appointment, atempt, assing, admire, adore, administer and 11 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for achieve.

hernesheir Railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "What will be the expense of action?" --1906 US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code. Jan 19, 2013