Accompanies

How to spell accompanies

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce accompanies

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does accompanies mean?

1. verbGoes somewhere together with a person, or exists alongside something else.

Accompanies in a sentence

• A senior nurse accompanies every patient to the operating theatre.

• A detailed invoice accompanies each delivery from the warehouse.

Where does accompanies come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back through Old French acompaignier, meaning 'to associate with' or 'to go along with', which was built from the prefix a- ('to') and compaignon, a 'companion'. That older word for companion came in turn from a Late Latin idea of someone you share bread with, since it joined com- ('with') and panis ('bread'); a companion was literally a fellow bread-eater. English took the verb on board in the 1400s, first meaning to keep company with a person and later widening to cover anything that goes together with something else, including a musician supporting a singer. The buried Latin panis ('bread') is the same root sitting inside 'pantry' and 'companion'. The spelling trap is invisible: writers must double the c, keep a single m and a single n, and remember the verb's -y turns to -ies in this form.

How the word is built

• ac- (variant of ad-, 'to')
• com- (with)
• pan (companion, from Latin panis 'bread')
• -y (verb)
• -es (third-person singular ending)