different between achieve vs achieves

English

Alternative forms

• atchieve (obsolete)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??t?i?v/
• Rhymes: -i?v

Verb

achieve (third-person singular simple present achieves, present participle achieving, simple past and past participle achieved)

1. (intransitive) To succeed in something, now especially in academic performance. [from 14th c.]
2. (transitive) To carry out successfully; to accomplish. [from 14th c.]
   • 1832, Isaac Taylor, Saturday Evening

     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.

3. (obsolete, transitive) To conclude, finish, especially successfully. [14th-18th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.1:

     Full many Countreyes they did overronne, / From the uprising to the setting Sunne, / And many hard adventures did atchieve […]

4. (transitive) To obtain, or gain (a desired result, objective etc.), as the result of exertion; to succeed in gaining; to win. [from 14th c.]
   • c. 1601-1602, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, II-v

     Some are born great, some achieve greatness.
5. (obsolete, intransitive) To conclude, to turn out. [14th-16th c.]
6. (transitive, now literary) To obtain (a material thing). [from 15th c.]
   • 1700, Matthew Prior, Carmen Seculare. for the Year 1700

   Show all the spoils by valiant kings achieved.

   • c. 1603-1604, William Shakespeare, Othello, II-i

     He hath achieved a maid / That paragons description.

Synonyms

• accomplish, effect, fulfil, fulfill, complete, execute, perform, realize, obtain. See accomplish

Derived terms

• achievable
• achievement
• achiever
• overachieve
• underachieve

Translations

Further reading

• achieve at OneLook Dictionary Search
• achieve in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??t?i?vz/

Verb

achieves

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of achieve

Anagrams

• shave ice