Word of the Day

: July 31, 2007

obtain

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verb ub-TAYN

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What It Means

1 : to gain or attain usually by planned action or effort

2 : to be generally recognized or established : prevail

obtain in Context

The experiment was designed to obtain more accurate data about weather patterns.

Did You Know?

"Obtain," which was adopted into English in the 15th century, comes to us via Anglo-French from the Latin "obtinēre," meaning "to take hold of." "Obtinēre" was itself formed by combination of "ob-," meaning "in the way," and the verb "tenēre," meaning "to hold." If you have the kind of memory that holds on to etymological sources, you will likely remember that we featured another descendent of "tenere" just days ago. For those whose memories have a less tenacious grip, we'll remind you now that the featured word was "untenable" (and that "tenacious" was also mentioned as a relative).

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.