achievement
Pluralachievements
- 1The act of achieving or performing something successfully, or the accomplishment itself.
Landing the contract was the team's biggest achievement of the year.
Her academic achievements opened doors to several universities.
Similaraccomplishment, success, feat, attainment
Oppositefailure
Note
The everyday sense stays closest to the root. Old French achever meant "to finish," so an achievement is first of all something brought to an end. It works as a count noun (an achievement, her achievements) and as a mass noun for the act itself. Graham Burtenshaw and Michael S. Welch used it that way in 1979, when they judged an ideal seat design "beyond achievement."
- 2A great or heroic deed, especially one accomplished through courage or daring.
The expedition's safe return was hailed as a remarkable achievement.
History remembers the general's achievements on the battlefield.
Similarfeat, exploit, deed, triumph
Note
A word for the deeds of heroes. Isaac Barrow, writing before 1677, sets the achievements of ancient saints against the most famous achievements of pagan heroes. By Macaulay's Minutes on the Education of India (c. 1837), the same grandeur belongs to science: "the highest achievements of the human intellect." It keeps company with superlatives, which is what sets it apart from the everyday sense of accomplishment.
- 3An award given in a video game for completing a particular task or meeting a set objective.
The game tracks every achievement you've unlocked across all platforms.
Completionists chase rare achievements that few players ever earn.
Similartrophy
Note
Players unlock achievements rather than win them. These are goals tracked alongside the game itself and rewarded with a badge or points, often apart from the main story. Trophy names the same thing, and chiev is the clipped form. Collecting every one is what turns finishing a game into a full 100% score.
- 4The successful completion of a socially defined goal, highlighting what an individual or group has accomplished.
Sociologists link educational achievement to family background and access to resources.
The community celebrated the achievement of its long-term housing goal.
Similarattainment, accomplishment, success, fulfillment, realization
Oppositefailure
Note
Sociologists use the word with a contrast in mind. Achievement is success measured against goals a society defines and values, as opposed to ascribed status fixed at birth. In phrases like educational achievement, it becomes something measured and compared across individuals and groups, rather than a single deed being praised.
- 5A full display of all the heraldic components a coat-of-arms bearer is entitled to; now especially a funeral shield, or hatchment.
The herald painted the complete achievement, including crest, shield, supporters, and motto.
After the duke died, his achievement was displayed above the manor gate.
Note
Heralds use the word for the whole picture, not the shield alone. An achievement brings together shield, crest, helm, mantling, supporters and motto. Its funeral meaning may owe something to hatchment, a word close to it in sound, which names the diamond-shaped board hung after a death. Charlotte Smith's Celestina (1791) sets a family's achievements in painted window glass.
- 6A category of verb or predicate in lexical aspect describing events that change state in an instant.
Linguists classify 'arrive' as an achievement, since the event culminates instantaneously.
Unlike activities, achievements have a built-in endpoint reached in a single moment.
Note
Grammarians use the word for one of the aspect classes in Vendler's scheme. It covers predicates such as recognize or reach the summit, which are telic and punctual and change state in a single moment. The trap is accomplishment, which also reaches an endpoint but takes time to get there. Robert van Valin and Randy LaPolla (1997) match achievement verbs to events and state verbs to situations.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle French achevement, from Old French achevement, based on the verb achever ("to finish"); it is equivalent to "achieve" plus the suffix "-ment." The heraldic sense may have been influenced by "hatchment."