# achieve
## English
### Alternative forms

* atchieve (obsolete)
* acheive (misspelling)

### Etymology

From Middle English achieven, acheven, from Anglo-Norman achever, Old French achever, achiever et al., apparently from Late Latin *accappāre, from ad (“to”) + caput (“head”) + -ō (verbal suffix), or alternatively a construction based on Old French chief (“head”). Compare Catalan, Occitan, Portuguese and Spanish acabar, French achever.

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /əˈt͡ʃiːv/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -iːv

### Verb

achieve (third-person singular simple present achieves, present participle achieving, simple past and past participle achieved)
* (intransitive) To succeed in something, now especially in academic performance. [from 14th c.]
* (transitive) To carry out successfully; to accomplish. [from 14th c.]
    You can achieve anything if you put your mind to it.
    Hannah achieved her lifelong dream of winning a medal at the Olympics.
** 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC:Supposing faculties and powers to be the same, far more may be achieved in any line by the aid of a capital, invigorating motive than without it.
* (obsolete, transitive) To conclude, finish, especially successfully. [14th–18th c.]
** 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:Full many Countreyes they did overronne, / From the uprising to the setting Sunne, / And many hard adventures did atchieve […]
* (transitive) To obtain, or gain (a desired result, objective etc.), as the result of exertion; to succeed in gaining; to win. [from 14th c.]
** 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I will have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I left New York for the West.
** 2013 January 22, Phil McNulty, “Aston Villa 2-1 Bradford (3-4)”, in BBC:Bradford may have lost on the night but they stubbornly protected a 3-1 first-leg advantage to emulate a feat last achieved by Rochdale in 1962.
** c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v]:Some are born great, some achieve greatness.
** 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:Thou hast achieved our liberty.
* (obsolete, intransitive) To conclude, to turn out. [14th–16th c.]
* (transitive, now literary) To obtain (a material thing). [from 15th c.]
** c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:He hath achieved a maid / That paragons description.
** 1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], “Flavius Domitian”, in The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], →OCLC, book VI ([The Romans] […]), paragraph 8, page 214, column 1:[U]s hitherto this Corner and ſecret receſſe hath defended, novv the Vttermoſt point of our Land is laid open: and things the leſſe they haue beene vvithin knovvledge, the greater the glorie is to atchieue them.
** 1700, Matthew Prior, Carmen Seculare. for the Year 1700:Show all the spoils by valiant kings achieved.

#### Synonyms

* (carry out successfully): accomplish, fulfil, fulfill, realize
* (conclude): conclude, end, finalize, complete
* (obtain or gain a desired result): attain, obtain, get one's hands on

#### Derived terms

* achievability
* achievable
* achievance
* achievement
* achiever
* outachieve
* overachieve
* reachieve
* superachieving
* underachieve

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Further reading

* “achieve”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
* “achieve”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* acheive