achievement

Old French achevement, from the verb achever, achiever (“to finish”). Compare Modern French achèvement, English hatchment.

• IPA^(key): /əˈtʃiːvmənt/

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achievement (countable and uncountable, plural achievements)

1. The act of achieving or performing; a successful performance; accomplishment
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess‎:

     The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.

   • 2012 March-April, Terrence J. Sejnowski, “Well-connected Brains”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 171:

     Creating a complete map of the human connectome would therefore be a monumental milestone but not the end of the journey to understanding how our brains work. The achievement will transform neuroscience and serve as the starting point for asking questions we could not otherwise have answered, […].

2. A great or heroic deed or feat; something accomplished by valor or boldness
   • (Can we date this quote?), Isaac Barrow, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     [The exploits] of the ancient saints […] do far surpass the most famous achievements of pagan heroes.

   • (Can we date this quote?), Thomas Babington Macaulay, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     The highest achievements of the human intellect.

3. (heraldry) An escutcheon or ensign armorial; now generally applied to the funeral shield commonly called hatchment.
4. (video games) An award for completing a particular task or meeting an objective in a video game.

   Finishing the game does not give you a 100% score until you have unlocked all of the achievements.

5. (grammar, semantics) The lexical aspect (aktionsart) of verbs or predicates that change in an instant.
   • 1997, Robert van Valin and Randy LaPolla, Syntax‎, page 92:

     […] distinctions among states of affairs are reflected to a striking degree in distinctions among Aktionsart types. That is, situations are expressed by state verbs or predicates, events by achievement verbs or predicates, and actions by activity verbs or predicates.

• achievement in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.