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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

obtain

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster

Arts, Literature, Language Courses, Education

4.31.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2023

⏱️ 3 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 8, 2023 is:

obtain • \ub-TAYN\  • verb

To obtain something is to gain or get it usually by planned action or effort, as opposed to chance, purchase, or another method.

// The experiment was designed to obtain more accurate data about weather patterns.

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Examples:

“Declining species, like spotted owls, may be hard to see, but recordings may help document the numbers of the species. ‘There’s an acute need to obtain more sound recordings of many species, of the dawn chorus and sounds at night,’ Benner says. He uses recordings of red crossbills to understand the populations of that species, a type of finch, that occur in Southern California and in the Sierra Nevada.” — Dakota Kim, The Los Angeles Times, 10 Aug. 2023

Did you know?

If you have difficulty choosing whether to use obtain or attain in a sentence, don’t worry, we get it. Both can mean “to get” or “to acquire,” and in some situations can be used synonymously, but one or the other might be more appropriate depending on what is being acquired and how. One clue is their respective etymologies: obtain comes to us via Anglo-French from the Latin verb obtinēre, meaning “to hold on to, possess,” while attain’s Anglo-French ancestor is ateindre, meaning “to reach” or “to accomplish.” Accordingly, obtain is usually the word used when you are acquiring, by planned effort, a tangible object—something you can hold. “We are having trouble obtaining the supplies we need” sounds natural, for example, while “Have you attained the sugar and flour I asked for?” does not. Reflecting its roots (and also implying effort), attain is often used in the same way as achieve, as in “After decades of hard work she attained her goal of earning a PhD.” Of course, one can also obtain intangible things, such as power or information, so consider this advice something to hold onto and consider when the moment arises—you needn’t cling to it.



Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

It's Merriam Webster's Word of the Day for October 8th.

0:11.4

Today's word is obtained, spelled O-B-T-A-I-N, obtained as a verb.

0:17.5

To obtain something is to gain or get it usually by planned action or effort, as opposed

0:23.2

to chance purchase or another method.

0:25.9

Here's the word used in a sentence from the Los Angeles Times by Dakota Kim.

0:30.8

Declining species like spotted owls may be hard to see, but recordings may help document

0:36.6

the numbers of the species.

0:39.3

There's an acute need to obtain more sound recordings of many species, of the Don Corus

0:45.6

and Sounds at Night, Benner says.

0:48.6

He uses recordings of red crossbills to understand the populations of that species, a type of

0:53.9

finch that occur in Southern California and in the Sierra Nevada.

0:59.4

If you have difficulty choosing whether to use the words obtain or obtain in a sentence,

1:05.1

don't worry, we get it.

1:07.4

Both can mean to get or to acquire, and in some situations can be used synonymously,

1:13.9

but one or the other might be more appropriate depending on what is being acquired and how.

1:19.7

One clue is their respective etymologies.

1:23.4

Obtain comes to us via Anglo-French, from the Latin verb obtinary, meaning to hold

1:28.8

on to, to possess, while attains Anglo-French ancestor is at d'Andre, meaning to reach

1:35.4

or to accomplish.

1:37.0

Accordingly, obtain is usually the word used when you are acquiring by planned effort a tangible

1:43.2

object, something you can hold.

1:45.8

We are having trouble obtaining the supplies we need, sounds natural, for example, while

...

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