attain
pronunciation
How to pronounce attain in British English:
UK [əˈteɪn]
How to pronounce attain in American English:
US [əˈteɪn]
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- Verb:
- to gain with effort
- reach a point in time, or a certain state or level
- find unexpectedly
- reach a destination, either real or abstract
Word Origin
- attain
- attain: [14] Unlike contain, maintain, obtain, and the rest of a very long list of English words ending in -tain, attain does not come from Latin tenēre ‘_hold’. Its source is Latin tangere ‘touch’ (as in English tangible and tangent). The addition of the prefix ad- ‘to’ produced attingere ‘reach’, which passed via Vulgar Latin *attangere and Old French ataindre into English.=> tangent, tangible
- attain (v.)
- c. 1300, "to succeed in reaching," from ataign-, stem of Old French ataindre (11c., Modern French atteindre) "to come up to, reach, attain, endeavor, strive," from Vulgar Latin *attangere, corresponding to Latin attingere "to touch, to arrive at," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + tangere "to touch" (see tangent (adj.)). Latin attingere had a wide range of meanings, including "to attack, to strike, to appropriate, to manage," all somehow suggested by the literal sense "to touch." Related: Attained; attaining.
Antonym
Example
- 1. Some 20 % of students attain these grades .
- 2. Trees do not grow to the sky and markets do not attain infinite value .
- 3. A constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds vote of both houses of congress , which looks difficult to attain .
- 4. He runs the danger of prescribing too tightly what schools should do , as well as the standards they should attain .
- 5. South korea has essentially reached the level of wealth that it can attain by relying on exports to turn a rural economy into an industrial one .