accomplished

1. 1
   adjective

   Having many skills or achievements, usually gained through study or training.

   Like a chef who has mastered every dish on the menu after years in the kitchen.

   An accomplished violinist, she has performed on stages around the world.

   The firm recruited several accomplished engineers from leading universities.

   Similarskilled, talented, gifted, expert, proficient

   Oppositeunskilled, inexperienced, inept

   Note

   Praise for skill, not for goodness: an accomplished villain is as natural a phrase as an accomplished scholar. Milton calls Eve accomplished in Paradise Lost (1667). The word long carried a social shading, too: the most accomplished woman of the town, or the accomplished young man who asserts himself in the hunt. Before a noun naming a calling, such as scholar or violinist, it means seasoned and capable.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of accomplish.

   The team accomplished what no one thought possible.

   He had accomplished little by the time he retired.

   Note

   A single regular -ed form serves both the simple past (they accomplished it) and the participle after have or be (it has been accomplished). The participle also carries the verb's regional and older senses. In the Philippines, a form is accomplished when it is filled out. The archaic sense "to polish in acquirements" is the bridge to the "many skills" meaning.

3. 3
   adjective

   Displaying real skill and artistry.

   Like a solo so polished that the audience forgets the player is working at all.

   The portrait was an accomplished piece of work, rich in fine detail.

   Critics praised her accomplished handling of the difficult score.

   Similarskillful, masterly, polished, expert, assured

   Oppositeamateurish, clumsy, inept

   Note

   Here the praise moves from the maker to the made: an accomplished first novel, an accomplished performance. In Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813) a young lady is "so accomplished" because she plays and sings all day long, which is skill on show in the doing. Applied to a work, the word judges the craft visible in it. The maker's reputation belongs to the "many skills" meaning.

4. 4
   adjective

   Brought to completion; carried out and firmly established.

   Like a contract that is signed and sealed, leaving nothing left to settle.

   Once the merger was accomplished, the two companies shared a single name.

   She regarded the deal as accomplished and turned to other matters.

   Similarcompleted, achieved, finished, done

   Oppositeunfinished, incomplete

   Note

   The participle of accomplish turned into a description, in use since the late 15th century. Its set phrase is an accomplished fact: something done and settled, no longer open to argument. Here the word describes a deed or a state of affairs rather than a person. That is what separates it from the "many skills" meaning, where it describes the person who has done the accomplishing.

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