approach
pronunciation
How to pronounce approach in British English:
UK [əˈprəʊtʃ]
How to pronounce approach in American English:
US [əˈproʊtʃ]
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- Noun:
- ideas or actions intended to deal with a problem or situation
- the act of drawing spatially closer to something
- a way of entering or leaving
- the final path followed by an aircraft as it is landing
- the event of one object coming closer to another
- a tentative suggestion designed to elicit the reactions of others
- the temporal property of becoming nearer in time
- a close approximation
- a relatively short golf shot intended to put the ball onto the putting green
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- Verb:
- move towards
- come near or verge on, resemble, come nearer in quality, or character
- begin to deal with
- come near in time
- make advances to someone, usually with a proposal or suggestion
Word Origin
- approach
- approach: [14] Approach is etymologically connected with propinquity ‘nearness’; they both go back ultimately to Latin prope ‘near’. Propinquity [14] comes from a derived Latin adjective propinquus ‘neighbouring’, while approach is based on the comparative form propius ‘nearer’. From this was formed the late Latin verb appropiāre ‘go nearer to’, which came to English via Old French aprochier.Latin prope, incidentally, may be connected in some way with the preposition prō (a relative of English for), and a hypothetical variant of it, *proqe, may be the source, via its superlative proximus, of English proximity and approximate.=> approximate, propinquity, proximity
- approach (v.)
- c. 1300, from Anglo-French approcher, Old French aprochier "approach, come closer" (12c., Modern French approcher), from Late Latin appropiare "go nearer to," from Latin ad- "to" (see ad-) + Late Latin propiare "come nearer," comparative of Latin prope "near" (see propinquity). Replaced Old English neahlæcan.
- approach (n.)
- mid-15c., from approach (v.). Figurative sense of "means of handling a problem, etc." is first attested 1905.
Example
- 1. Other companies have taken a different approach .
- 2. The approach has caught on .
- 3. A gradual approach is better .
- 4. How do you approach the big call ?
- 5. A more conciliatory approach by mr putin seems unlikely .