accesses

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of access.

   The new employee accesses the records system through a secure login.

   A backup routine accesses the server at midnight to copy the day's files.

   Note

   Here the -es ending marks a present-tense verb with a singular subject: she accesses, it accesses. The verb is transitive, so it takes its object directly, as in the program accesses the file. The noun needs a preposition, as in it has access to the file. Writing accesses to the file mixes the two constructions, a common slip because the noun is so familiar.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of access.

   The old fortress had several hidden accesses through the surrounding walls.

   Administrators reviewed the unauthorized accesses recorded over the weekend.

   Note

   Only some meanings of access allow a plural. Most of the noun's senses are uncountable, including the right of entry, the act of approaching and ease of approach, so a person has access, never accesses. The plural appears when access is counted, as with separate ways in or separate instances of reaching something. An archaic countable sense, an increase by addition, also took it. The same spelling serves the present-tense verb.

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