Attain

How to spell attain

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce attain

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does attain mean?

1. verbTo reach or achieve something through effort over time.

Attain in a sentence

• Years of evening study helped her attain a law degree.

• Few runners attain that speed without professional coaching.

Where does attain come from?

Language of origin: French

Attain reached English in the early 1300s through the Old French ataindre, which meant to reach, accomplish, or even strike. That French verb descended from the Latin attingere, formed from ad- meaning 'to' or 'toward' and tangere meaning 'to touch'. So the literal idea was 'to touch upon' or 'to reach as far as', which over time broadened into the modern sense of arriving at a goal through effort. The same tangere root gives us a surprising family of relatives, including 'tangent', 'tangible', 'contact', and even 'contagion'. The spelling trap sits in that French-derived '-tain' ending, which sounds like 'tain' but is easy to mangle by doubling the wrong letter or writing 'attein'; remembering the single 't' shared with 'touch' and the double 't' after the 'a-' prefix keeps it straight.

How the word is built

• at- (to, toward; from Latin ad-)
• -tain (from tangere/-tingere: to touch, reach)