Access

How to spell access

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce access

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does access mean?

1. nounThe right, means, or opportunity to enter, use, or reach something.
2. verbTo retrieve, enter, or make use of something, especially stored data or a place.

Access in a sentence

• noun

  Staff need a keycard to gain access to the server room.

• verb

  You can access your statements online at any time.

• noun

  The new ramp gives wheelchair users access to the building.

• verb

  Engineers had to access the pump through a narrow hatch.

Where does access come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word access comes from the Latin accessus, meaning 'an approach' or 'a coming towards', which was the past participle form of the verb accedere, 'to approach' or 'to come near'. That verb was built from ad, meaning 'to' or 'towards', and cedere, 'to go' or 'to move', so the literal idea was simply 'a going up to' something. English took the word in during the 1300s, borrowed through Old French acces, where it carried senses of arrival and attack of illness as well as approach. The same cedere root that gives the doubled 'c' here also lives in relatives like proceed, recede, and concede. The verb sense, meaning 'to get at or retrieve', is much more recent and grew enormously with computing in the twentieth century. The spelling trap is the double 'c' followed by double 's', which writers easily reduce to a single letter.

How the word is built

• ac- (variant of ad-: to, towards)
• cess (from cedere: to go, to move)