Acceptance

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /əkˈsɛp.təns/

Definitions

1. The act of receiving something willingly or agreeing that something is true or valid
2. The process of willingly receiving or embracing an idea, as well as the acknowledgment of the validity of a claim or situation
3. The state of agreeing to receive something without resistance along with the recognition of the truth of a particular matter

Etymology: Acceptance has a Latin core that is easy to spot: "accipere," meaning to take or receive, built from "ad" (toward) and "capere" (to take). The Latin verb came into Old French as "accepter," and English borrowed the noun through Middle French, though it also grew partly from the English verb "accept" plus the suffix "-ance." The sense is a neat one: to accept something is to take it toward oneself, which is why the word now means willingly taking in an offer, a belief, or a situation. The word's first recorded appearances in English date to around 1528 to 1530, so it arrived in the early sixteenth century, a few decades before "accept" settled into the sense of approving something. The suffix "-ance" comes from Old French and descends from Latin forms ending in "-antia," a pattern that turns verbs and adjectives into nouns of state or action, as in "assistance" or "tolerance."

Synonyms: approval, admission, recognition, embrace, consent

Antonyms: rejection, refusal, disapproval, denial, disregard