different between achieve vs learn

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

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: lûn, IPA^(key): /l??n/
• (General American) enPR: lûrn, IPA^(key): /l?n/
• Rhymes: -??(?)n

Etymology 1

From Middle English lernen, from Old English leornian (“to acquire knowledge”), from Proto-Germanic *liznan?. Cognate with German lernen (“to learn”).

Verb

learn (third-person singular simple present learns, present participle learning, simple past and past participle learned or (chiefly UK) learnt)

1. To acquire, or attempt to acquire knowledge or an ability to do something.
   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     Every day I learn more about this great city.

2. To attend a course or other educational activity.
   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     For, as he took delight to introduce me, I took delight to learn.

3. To gain knowledge from a bad experience so as to improve.

4. To study.

5. To come to know; to become informed of; to find out.

Conjugation

Usage notes

• See other, dated and regional, sense of learn below.

Synonyms

• study

Antonyms

• forget
• teach

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

learn (plural learns)

1. The act of learning something

Etymology 2

Possibly related to Middle English leren, from Old English l?ran (“to teach, instruct, indoctrinate”), from Proto-West Germanic *lai?ijan, from Proto-Germanic *laizijan? (“to teach”), from *laiz? (“lore, teaching", literally, "track, trace”), from Proto-Indo-European *leys- (“to track, furrow”).

Cognate with Scots lere, leir, Saterland Frisian leere, West Frisian leare, Dutch leren, German lehren, Swedish lära. See also lear, lore. But normally the Middle English word would give lere, not learn.

Verb

learn (third-person singular simple present learns, present participle learning, simple past and past participle learned or learnt)

1. (now only in non-standard speech and dialects) To teach.

   Give him a clip round the ear. That'll learn him!

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 4 Scene 1

     Sweet prince, you learn me noble thankfulness.

   • circa 1611, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, Act I Scene 5:

     Have I not been / Thy pupil long? Hast thou not learn’d me how / To make perfumes?

   • 1993, The Simpsons, (18 Feb. 1993) Lisa's thoughts:

     That'll learn him to bust my tomater.

Usage notes

Now often considered non-standard.

Derived terms

• learned

Related terms

• larn
• lore

References

• learn in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• learn in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913..
• Family Word Finder, Readers Digest Association Inc. NY 1975

Anagrams

• Laren, Larne, laner, neral, renal

Bavarian

Alternative forms

• learnan (Timau)

Etymology

From Old High German lern?n, lirn?n, from Proto-Germanic *liznan?. Compare German lernen, English learn, Dutch leren.

Verb

learn

1. (Sappada, Sauris) to learn

References

• “learn” in Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

Scots

Etymology

From Old English leornian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l?rn/

Verb

learn (third-person singular present learns, present participle learnin, past learnt, past participle learnt)

1. To learn.
2. To teach.