Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The process of achieving something.
  • noun Something that has been achieved, especially by means of skill or perseverance: synonym: feat.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of achieving or performing; an obtaining by exertion; accomplishment: as, the achievement of one's object.
  • noun That which is achieved; a great or heroic deed; something accomplished by valor, boldness, or superior ability.
  • noun In heraldry, an escutcheon or armorial shield.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of achieving or performing; an obtaining by exertion; successful performance; accomplishment.
  • noun A great or heroic deed; something accomplished by valor, boldness, or praiseworthy exertion; a feat.
  • noun (Her.) An escutcheon or ensign armorial; now generally applied to the funeral shield commonly called hatchment.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act of achieving or performing; an obtaining by exertion; successful performance; accomplishment; as, the achievement of his/her object.
  • noun A great or heroic deed; something accomplished by valor, boldness, or praiseworthy exertion; a feat.
  • noun heraldry An escutcheon or ensign armorial; now generally applied to the funeral shield commonly called hatchment. - Cussans
  • noun video games An award for completing a particular task or meeting an objective.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the action of accomplishing something

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old French achevement, from the verb achever, achiever ("to finish"). Compare Modern French achèvement, English hatchment

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Examples

  • One day, thousands of years from now, after the devastating effects of climate change have successfully wiped out the majority of twenty-first century American culture through some cataclysmic disaster that leaves only ruins to be studied, much like how our society now studies ancient Babylon, the children of the future will be sitting in their futuristic classrooms watching the only remaining DVD of our era, which just so happens to be the first season of Big Time Rush, and the teacher is going to say, "This was the pinnacle of twenty-first century American musical achievement," and somewhere in the ethos (* insert name of composer who you feel best represents twenty-first century American musical achievement*) will cry out in despair.

    NewMusicBox 2010

  • Granted, it was a time when the graduation rate was a non-issue and the term achievement gap had yet to be coined.

    ArtsJournal: Daily Arts News 2010

  • But when you consider the magnitude of shifting from one conservative era to one in which government simply has to be deployed to tackle deep structural problems, the achievement is as significant as his election year.

    Think Progress » Tea Party activists distribute signs paid for by the RNC at ‘Take The Town Halls to Washington’ event. 2010

  • That's what they are referring to, this renewal, this -- what they call achievement of enrichment at Netame (ph).

    CNN Transcript Apr 13, 2006 2006

  • Quite apart from the remarkable nature of this achievement is the fact that this is merely another proof that even under the pressure of war and the heavy drain on manpower, the brains of Britain were never more vigorous and never more productive than they are today.

    Britain Sees It Through 1944

  • If one accomplishes something especially fine, his achievement is a source of admiration and joy to others: no heart suffers from another's wealth, but the triumph of one is a delight to all.

    The Montessori Method Anne E. Montessori George 1912

  • I'm sure the 'achievement' is great ... but it's slow, it looks terrible, and it can't handle things like GTK+ windows properly.

    Nimi Adds Visual Effects And Eye Candy To Windows | Lifehacker Australia 2009

  • Sen. Clinton may have succeeded in getting people to call her "Hillary" and to have made them feel resigned to her front-runnership, but what kind of achievement is that?

    Archive 2007-09-01 xtra 2007

  • Sen. Clinton may have succeeded in getting people to call her "Hillary" and to have made them feel resigned to her front-runnership, but what kind of achievement is that?

    Gore to Run? xtra 2007

  • But perhaps Ephron’s main achievement is that she has always had the talent and courage to say things that others writers can’t or don’t.

    Ms. Ephron Regrets « One-Minute Book Reviews 2006

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    September 7, 2009