Accessory

How to spell accessory

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce accessory

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does accessory mean?

1. nounA subordinate item that adds to the usefulness or appearance of something more important.
2. nounA person who helps another to commit a crime without taking part in the main act itself.
3. adjectiveServing as a secondary or supporting addition to something primary.

Accessory in a sentence

• noun

  The phone came with a charging cable and one spare accessory.

• noun

  The driver who waited outside was charged as an accessory to the robbery.

• adjective

  The engine relies on an accessory pump to circulate the coolant.

• noun

  A leather belt is the one accessory that finishes the whole outfit.

• noun

  Hiding the stolen goods made her an accessory after the fact.

• adjective

  The report listed the main findings and several accessory notes.

Where does accessory come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb accedere, meaning 'to approach' or 'to be added', formed from the prefix ad- ('to' or 'toward') and the verb cedere ('to go' or 'to yield'). From accedere came the medieval Latin noun accessorius, describing something that is added to or goes along with a more important thing. English took the word up in the early 1400s, first in legal use for a person who assists in a crime without committing the main act, and later for any subordinate item that supplements something else. The same cedere root sits inside a whole family of common English words, including 'access', 'concede', 'recede' and 'proceed', and recognising that shared cess core helps explain the double c followed by a double s. The spelling trap is precisely those clustered consonants: two c's, two s's, then the gentle -ory ending that fades to a schwa in speech.

How the word is built

• ac- (to, toward; assimilated form of ad-)
• cess (go, yield; from Latin cedere)
• -ory (noun/adjective suffix denoting a thing that does or relates to)