Acceptance

How to spell acceptance

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce acceptance

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does acceptance mean?

1. nounThe act of receiving, agreeing to, or approving something that is offered.
2. nounThe state of being received favourably or regarded as belonging within a group.

Acceptance in a sentence

• Her acceptance of the job offer surprised the whole team.

• The new policy gained wide acceptance among the staff.

• The contract becomes binding upon written acceptance by both parties.

• He longed for acceptance from his older colleagues.

Where does acceptance come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Acceptance traces back to the Latin verb accipere, meaning 'to receive' or 'to take to oneself', which was formed from ad- 'to, toward' and capere 'to take'. Latin developed a frequentative form, acceptare, for the repeated act of receiving, and from this grew the medieval Latin noun acceptantia. English borrowed the word through Old French in the late 1400s, initially for the act of receiving something offered. The same capere root sits inside a large family of English words, including 'capture', 'receive', and 'concept', which is why the middle 'cept' spelling is so consistent across them. The classic spelling trap is the unstressed ending: it is -ance, not the -ence many writers expect, a clue preserved from the Latin -antia suffix.

How the word is built

• ac- (from ad-: to, toward)
• cept (from capere: to take)
• -ance (noun-forming suffix)