Attain or obtain?
attain is a verb meaning “To come to or reach (a place) by motion or progression”; obtain is a verb meaning “To get hold of; to gain possession of, to procure; to acquire, in any way”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) obtain is about 6.3 times as common as attain.
What is the difference between attain and obtain?
| attain | obtain | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, noun | verb |
| Meaning | To come to or reach (a place) by motion or progression To arrive at (a certain age or time, condition or state, etc.); to reach | To get hold of; to gain possession of, to procure; to acquire, in any way To exist or be the case; to hold true, be in force |
| Example | To attain such a high level of proficiency requires hours of practice each day | obtain permission |
| Forms | attains, attaining, attained | obtains, obtaining, obtained |
| Pronunciation | /əˈteɪn/ | /əbˈteɪn/ |
| In writing | 4.0 times per million words | 25 times per million words |
Sources: attain and obtain in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of attain and obtain
attain
- 1
To come to or reach (a place) by motion or progression
- 2
To arrive at (a certain age or time, condition or state, etc.); to reach
- 3
To gain (a desired result or other objective) through effort; to accomplish, to achieve
To attain such a high level of proficiency requires hours of practice each day
- 4
To arrive at a certain condition or state, etc
obtain
- 1
To get hold of; to gain possession of, to procure; to acquire, in any way
obtain permission
- 2
To exist or be the case; to hold true, be in force
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, attain or obtain?
attain appears 4.0 times per million words; obtain 25 times per million words.
attain 4.0 times per million wordsobtain 25 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search attain vs obtain?
“attain vs obtain” is searched about 5,400 times a month on Google and 360 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“obtain vs attain”, “attain or obtain”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.