attained

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of attain.

   He attained the rank of captain within five years.

   The company attained record profits last quarter.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty: he attained the rank is past tense, he has attained it is the perfect, and the rank was attained is the passive. Most uses take an object, so the passive comes naturally. An intransitive use survives too, meaning to arrive through effort or growth. Older meanings, such as overtaking someone or coming to know something, are now obsolete.

2. 2
   adjective

   Having been achieved or reached.

   The newly attained independence transformed the region's economy.

   Her hard-won, attained expertise set her apart from her peers.

   Similarachieved, acquired

   Note

   A participle that has settled into an adjective, usually describing a goal or state already reached: newly attained independence, an attained standard. It does not grade, so nothing is more attained or very attained. The words that pair with it tell when rather than how much: newly, recently, finally. Its verbal source is the past participle, and the adjective keeps that sense of something completed.

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