acceptance

noun

uhk-SEP-tuhns/əkˈsɛp.təns/

Pluralacceptances (some meanings)

10 meanings of acceptance

1
noununcountable
The act of taking something offered, received willingly and with approval or satisfaction.
The committee's acceptance of the proposal was met with applause.
Their warm acceptance of the new neighbor put her at ease.
Similarapproval, welcome, reception, adoption, embrace
Oppositerejection, refusal
Note
The root sense, formed as accept plus -ance and borrowed from Middle French, first recorded in 1574. Its older weight falls on welcome rather than mere receipt. In the King James Bible of 1611, the flocks "shall come up with acceptance on mine altar": they will be received with favor. Used this way the noun is uncountable, while a single act of accepting takes a plural.
2
nouncountable or uncountable
The condition of being received or approved by others.
Gaining acceptance into the academic community took her nearly a decade.
His unconventional ideas slowly won acceptance among his peers.
Similarapproval, recognition, admission, inclusion
Oppositerejection, exclusion
Note
Here the word turns passive: it names not the receiving but the condition of having been received. Shakespeare's Lucrece (1594) calls his lines "assured of acceptance," sure of a welcome owed to the reader's goodwill rather than to their own worth. That framing survives in gain, win and find acceptance, where acceptance is something granted by others.
3
nouncountable or uncountable
Belief in or agreement with something; assent to its truth or rightness.
The scientific community's acceptance of the hypothesis grew as evidence accumulated.
Public acceptance of the policy remained low despite the campaign.
Similarapproval, assent, endorsement, recognition, support
Oppositerejection, dissent, disbelief, opposition
4
nouncountable
A single occurrence of accepting something offered or proposed.
The college mailed out thousands of acceptances this spring.
His acceptance of the job offer came by email the next morning.
Oppositerejection, refusal
5
nouncountable or uncountable
Agreement to the terms or proposal of another by an act that completes a legally binding contract; also, the taking of purchased goods as what was bought or agreed.
The buyer's acceptance of the goods closed the sale.
A contract forms only when acceptance matches the offer exactly.
Similarassent
Oppositerejection
Note
Contract law treats acceptance as the step that turns an offer into a binding agreement, and the step can be an act rather than words. Deciding which conduct counts is the hard part. Mozley and Whiteley's Concise Law Dictionary (1876) calls it "a question of great nicety and difficulty." The same word covers a buyer taking delivered goods as the thing bargained for.
6
nouncountable or uncountable
A promise by the person on whom a bill of exchange is drawn to pay it when due according to the stated terms; also, the bill itself once it has been accepted.
The drawee signed the acceptance, agreeing to pay at the end of the quarter.
Banks discount trade acceptances before they reach maturity.
Note
Commerce gives the word two objects at once, the promise and the paper. A bill of exchange is drawn on someone. When that person engages to pay it when due, the bill itself becomes an acceptance. From then on acceptances can be held and discounted like any instrument, while the word still remembers the drawee's commitment behind them.
7
nouncountable or uncountable
The meaning a word or expression usually carries; its accepted sense in ordinary use.
In its ordinary acceptance, 'liberal' simply means generous.
Legal documents often rely on the strict acceptance of each term.
Similarsense, meaning
8
nounUScountable or uncountable
A government representative's formal act of taking ownership of delivered supplies, or approving services rendered, as fulfillment of part or all of a contract.
Government acceptance of the delivered parts marked completion of the first phase.
The contracting officer signed the acceptance after inspecting every unit.
Oppositerejection
Note
US government contracting takes the legal idea of acceptance in contract law and assigns it to one party, the government. Only an authorized representative can give it. It applies to supplies that already exist and are identified, or to specific services. Because it can mark partial performance, a single contract may involve several acceptances.
9
nounAustraliaNew Zealandcountable or uncountableplural
The official list of horses confirmed as starters for a race.
The acceptance for the cup was released the day before the race.
Three favorites were missing from the acceptance after late scratches.
Note
A racing word from Australia and New Zealand, and one that lives in the plural: people speak of the acceptances for a race, the whole published field, rather than of a single acceptance. Because it names the list and not any one horse's entry, a runner is listed in the acceptances or left out of them. Keep it apart from the contract-law sense, where acceptance seals a binding agreement.
10
nouncountable or uncountable
An optical measure of the extent of light, combining the area it covers and the range of angles over which it spreads; a synonym of etendue.
Designers maximize acceptance to capture as much light as possible from the source.
The detector's acceptance set a hard limit on the signal it could collect.
Similaretendue
Note
Optics uses the word for a quantity rather than an act, and it shares that use with etendue. The quantity joins two things: the area light passes through and the range of angles over which it spreads. The image is of an instrument's capacity, meaning how much light a detector or system will accept. That is why designers speak of maximizing it.

Practice

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Origin

First attested in 1574, from Middle French acceptance, which came from Old French accepter ("accept"). It is equivalent to accept plus the suffix -ance.