acquire
ac·quire/əˈkwaɪɚ/verb
acquire is spelled A-C-Q-U-I-R-E, 2 syllables: ac·quire. The wrong spelling people search most is aquire: about 840 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 3 in 10 of all searches for the word. Acquire is a verb meaning “To get”.
How many letters and syllables are in acquire?
| Letters | 7: A-C-Q-U-I-R-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: ac·quire |
| In writing | 13 times per million words; the 5,778th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, aquire, about 840 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell acquire?
Acquire is spelled A-C-Q-U-I-R-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 3 in 10 of the searches for acquire in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is acquire?
Acquire appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 5,778th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce acquire?
- US /əˈkwaɪɚ/
- UK /əˈkwaɪə/
Acquire has 2 syllables, split ac·quire in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-acquire.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with acquire?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as acquire from its last stressed vowel (/aɪəɹ/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of acquire
- acquires present, singular, he/she/it
- acquiring participle, present
- acquired participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does acquire mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To get.
- 2
To gain, usually by one's own exertions; to get as one's own.
to acquire a skill
- 3
To become affected by an illness.
- 4
To sample signals and convert them into digital values.
- 5
CanadaUSTo begin tracking a mobile target with a particular detector or sight, generally with the implication that an attack on the target thereby becomes possible.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Acquire in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | acquérir |
| German | erwerben , akquirieren |
| Portuguese | adquirir |
| Spanish | obtener , adquirir |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does acquire come from?
From Middle English acqueren, from Old French aquerre, from Latin acquirō; ad- + quaerō (“to seek for”). See quest.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).