Attained

How to spell attained

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce attained

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does attained mean?

1. verbSucceeded in reaching, achieving, or arriving at something through effort.

Attained in a sentence

• She attained a senior management role within five years.

• The company attained record profits last quarter.

Where does attained come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the past tense of 'attain', which travelled into English in the 1300s from Old French ataindre, meaning to reach, touch, or accomplish. The French verb came in turn from the Latin attingere, a compound of the prefix ad-, meaning 'to' or 'towards', and tangere, meaning 'to touch'. The literal sense was therefore 'to touch upon' or 'to reach all the way to' something, and over time that physical reaching softened into the figurative idea of achieving a goal or arriving at a state. The same tangere root quietly underpins a surprising family of English words, including 'tangent', 'tangible', 'contact', and even 'contagious'. A useful spelling clue is that the double 't' comes straight from the assimilation of ad- into at- before the t of tangere, while the single 'n' before -ed reflects the Old French spelling, not a doubling.

How the word is built

• at- (from ad-: to, towards)
• tain (from tangere: to touch, reach)
• -ed (past tense suffix)