accompany
Formsaccompanies, accompanying, accompanied
- 1To go with or attend someone as a companion or associate.
A trained guide will accompany visitors through the cave system.
Two officers accompanied the witness to the courthouse.
Similarescort, attend, conduct, guide, chaperone
Note
The core sense, and the one the etymology explains best. Middle English accompanien comes from Old French acompagner, built on compaing, 'companion,' the same family as company. To accompany someone is to be their companion on the way. Older English often used with where modern prose uses by: Philip Sidney wrote in 1581 that people are never alone 'that are accompanied with noble thoughts,' while Macaulay writes 'accompanied by two carts.'
- 2To exist alongside something as an addition or supplement to it.
Detailed footnotes accompany the main text throughout the volume.
A glass of red wine traditionally accompanies the roast.
Similarcomplement, supplement
- 3To be present or found at the same time as something else.
Severe headaches frequently accompany this kind of infection.
A sharp drop in temperature accompanied the storm front.
Similarattend
Note
In this sense the secondary thing is the subject and the main event is the object: thunder accompanies lightning, and headaches accompany an infection. The passive reverses the order, as in lightning is accompanied by thunder. Adverbs of frequency such as almost always and frequently fit naturally here, because the sense describes things that regularly occur together.
- 4To play a supporting musical part alongside another instrument or musician.
He often accompanies the soloist on harpsichord.
A pianist will accompany the violinist for the recital.
Note
Here the soloist is the object, and the accompanist's instrument is introduced with on: I will accompany her on the oboe, or he accompanies the soloist on harpsichord. In the passive, the featured part becomes the subject: the strings were accompanied by two woodwinds. Either way the hierarchy stays clear. Whatever is accompanied carries the main line, and whatever accompanies supports it.
- 5To perform one or more supporting parts within a composition.
During the verse the keyboard players accompany, leaving room for the vocalist.
She accompanied softly so the melody could be heard above everything.
Note
A musician's intransitive use. No object is named because the accompanist's role is the point: the keyboard players accompany, or she accompanied softly. The verb describes a part held back so that a melody can sit on top of it. When the person or instrument being supported is named, the verb becomes transitive, as in accompanying a soloist.
Less common meanings
- 6To associate together as a group; to keep company.
Note
An obsolete use in which a group keeps company among themselves, with no one leading and no one following. It typically paired with together, as in the 1601 English Pliny the Elder, where things that drive one another away are 'not accompanied together.' In older prose, read it as 'consort.' In modern writing it would be mistaken for escorting someone.
- 7To live together as a couple; to cohabit.
It was whispered that the steward accompanied with the housekeeper.
They chose to accompany together rather than seek the church's blessing.
Note
A discreet older way of referring to a couple living together, now obsolete. It took with: one person accompanied with another. In older texts that phrasing can mean more than companionship, so the context decides whether a couple is meant. Present-day English has lost this meaning entirely, and the verb should not be used for it.
- 8To cohabit with, coexist with, or occur together with someone or something.
Gijb, Suche as accompanyeth with man-killers and murtherers.
1534, John Bourchier, 2nd Baron BernersNote
The obsolete transitive version covers several kinds of togetherness: living with, coexisting with, and simply occurring alongside. John Bourchier, Lord Berners, in the Golden Book of Marcus Aurelius (1534), writes of 'such as accompanyeth with man-killers and murtherers,' meaning those who keep such company. The 'occur with' strand is the one that survived, in the modern sense of co-occurring.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of accompany apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
First attested in the early 15th century, it comes from Middle English accompanien, from Old French acompagner ('to associate with'), which derives from compaing ('companion'). It is related to the word company.