accommodate

Formsaccommodates, accommodating, accommodated

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To provide housing or lodging for one or more people.

   The new dormitory will accommodate three hundred students.

   Host families accommodated the exchange students for the summer.

   Similarhouse, lodge, board, shelter

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To provide enough space to hold a number of people or things.

   The stadium can accommodate eighty thousand spectators.

   The venue easily accommodated the entire conference.

   Similarhold, seat, house, fit, take

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To have space for and hold something comfortably.

   The new car accommodates five adults without anyone feeling cramped.

   Can this table accommodate all our guests?

   Similarseat, fit, hold, take

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To provide someone with something they want, need, or find convenient.

   The supplier was happy to accommodate us with extra materials.

   Local businesses accommodated travelers with food and supplies during the storm.

   Similarsupply, provide, furnish, equip

   Note

   Here the thing supplied follows with, as in accommodate a friend with a loan. The person is the object, and the provision comes after. Without the with-phrase, the verb drifts toward the "oblige" meaning, which means doing someone a favor in general. With it, the favor becomes a specific thing handed over.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To do a favor or service for someone; to oblige them.

   The waiter happily accommodated our unusual request.

   If you can accommodate me just this once, I'd be grateful.

   Similaroblige

   Oppositerefuse, decline, rebuff

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To take something into consideration and allow for it.

   The design accommodates future expansion of the building.

   Good policies accommodate the needs of people with disabilities.

   Similarpermit, allow, address, meet, consider

   Oppositeignore, disregard, preclude

7. 7
   verbreflexivetransitive

   To make something fit or suitable; to adapt it to a purpose or condition.

   The architect accommodated the design to the steep hillside.

   Writers must accommodate their language to their audience.

   Similaradapt, adjust, suit, arrange, conform

   Note

   The core sense, built from the Latin parts ad- "to" and commodō "to provide, lend". It most often turns back on its subject, as in accommodate ourselves to circumstances, and it usually takes to before whatever is being adapted to. Addison and Steele, writing in 1712, mock politicians who accommodate their counsels to a sovereign's inclinations instead of serving his real interest.

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To bring people or views into agreement; to reconcile differences.

   The new agreement accommodated the interests of workers and owners alike.

   Diplomats struggled to accommodate the opposing demands.

   Similarreconcile

9. 9
   verbtransitive

   To apply or fit something by analogy, as adapting a teaching to particular circumstances or a statement to the facts.

   Commentators accommodated the prophecy to events of their own day.

   The lecturer tried to accommodate the theory to the experimental results.

   Similaradapt, apply, fit, adjust, reconcile

10. 10
    verbintransitive

    To change the focal length of the eye's lens in order to focus on objects at different distances.

    The lens of the eye accommodates by changing its curvature.

    Healthy eyes accommodate quickly when shifting focus from far to near.

    Similarfocus

    Note

    Said of the eye itself: the eye accommodates, and nobody accommodates an eye. Because it takes no object, the adjusting organ is always the subject. A lens accommodates by changing its curvature as focus shifts between near and far. That sets it apart from the "adapt" sense, which always needs something to be adapted.

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