Admittance

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ədˈmɪt.n̩s/

Definitions

1. The process of granting entry or acknowledgment into a location, organization, or event indicates the provision of access and signifies acceptance within a particular context
2. Allowing individuals to enter a space or to be accepted into a group involves the authorization of access, which embodies the element of permission for participation
3. The act of permitting entry or acceptance into a place or system involves granting access and signifies recognition within a defined environment

Etymology: The most striking fact about this word is that its best-known technical sense was invented by a single person. In 1887, the electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist Oliver Heaviside coined a sense of "admittance" to describe how readily an alternating current flows through a circuit, the reciprocal of impedance. Heaviside was a self-taught figure who reworked the mathematics of electromagnetism, and this technical use grew out of his work rather than out of everyday speech. The everyday sense is far older and more ordinary. "Admittance" is simply "admit" with the suffix "-ance", which turns a verb of action into a noun for that action, as in "acceptance" or "attendance". So its basic meaning, the act of letting someone in or allowing them to join, follows directly from the verb, which itself came from Latin "admittere", meaning "to send to" or "to let go toward".

Synonyms: entrance, entry, access, permission, allowance

Antonyms: refusal, exclusion, denial, prohibition, bar