access
Syllables: ac·cessUK/ˈæksɛs//ˈækˌsɛs/
access noun: a way or means of approaching or entering; an entrance; a passage.
Noun
access (countable and uncountable, plural accesses)
- A way or means of approaching or entering; an entrance; a passage.
- The door provides access to the premises.
- All access was thronged.1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker...
- The act of approaching or entering; an advance.
- They gained access to the basement from the stairs.
- The right or ability of approaching or entering; admittance; admission; accessibility.
- Staff prevent unauthorized access to the building.
- The quality of being easy to approach or enter.
- ease of access
- I did repel his fetters, and denied His access to me.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- Admission to sexual intercourse.
- During coverture, access of the husband shall be presumed, unless the contrary be shown.1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC
- An increase by addition; accession.
- an access of territory
- I, from the influence of thy looks, receive access in every virtue.1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker...
- An onset, attack, or fit of disease; an ague fit.
- The first access looked like an apoplexy.a. 1716 (date written), [Gilbert] Burnet, edited by [Gilbert Burnet Jr.], Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] Thomas Ward […], published...
- Then he resumed the pose, the decent pose, from which the sudden access of his old trouble had startled him, his hands on his knees, […]1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC
- An outburst of an emotion; a paroxysm; a fit of passion.
- The Magpie's flashlight, as he shifted it from his right hand to his left and wrenched out his revolver, had fallen upon two men crouched close against the wall by the library door—and he screamed out in an access of fury. "De double cross! A plant! De bulls! You damned snitch, Larry!" screamed out...1917, Frank L. Packard, chapter 15, in The Adventures of Jimmie Dale
- It appears that, about the middle of the fourth century of the Christian Era, the Germans in the Roman service started the new practice of retaining their native names; and this change of etiquette, which seems to have been abrupt, points to a sudden access of self-confidence and self-assurance in...1946, Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History (Abridgement of Volumes I-VI by D.C. Somervell)
- Synonyms:
- accession
- The right of a noncustodial parent to visit their child.
- The process of locating data in memory.
- Operations on C++ volatiles do put the compiler on notice that the object may be modified asynchronously, and hence are generally safer to use than ordinary variable accesses.2011, Victor Pankratius, Ali-Reza Adl-Tabatabai, Walter Tichy, Fundamentals of Multicore Software Development, page 74
- Connection to or communication with a computer program or to the Internet.
- Complicity or assent.
Verb
access (third-person singular simple present accesses, present participle accessing, simple past and past participle accessed)
- To gain or obtain access to.
- The value of having in-house medical expertise is that staff with poor attendance records who have difficulty accessing NHS services can receive support from their employer, to help reduce absenteeism brought about by medical conditions.2023 December 13, 'Industry Insider', “Delivering a robust timetable”, in RAIL, number 998, page 68
- To have access to (data).
- I can't access most of the data on the computer without a password.
access meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
access in Hindi
- access
- अभिगम abhigam, बार bār, पहुँच pahũc
- access or fit
- उद्वेग udveg
access in Tamil
- அணுகு, பெறுவழி, அணுகுதல், நுழைவு, நுழைவுரிமை
access in Marathi
- access, reach, range
- गति gati
access in Urdu
- way or means of approaching
- رَسائی rasā'ī, پَہُن٘چ pahunc
More languagesFewer languages
- access in Bengali
- দখল dokhol, প্রবেশ probeś
- access in Telugu
- యాక్సెస్, ప్రాప్యత, యాక్సెస్ చేయండి
- access in Malayalam
- പ്രവേശനം pravēśanaṁ
- access in Kannada
- ದಾರಿ, ಬಾಗಿಲು, ಪ್ರವೇಶಾಧಿಕಾರ, ಪ್ರವೇಶದ್ವಾರ
- access in Punjabi
- ਪਹੁੰਚ
- access in Gujarati
- ઍક્સેસ, પહોંચ, ઍક્સેસ કરો
- access in Sanskrit
- अवकाश avakāśa
- access in Nepali
- पहुँच, पहुँच गर्ने
- access in Arabic
- معبر maʕbar, منفذ manfaḏ, دخول duḵūl, ولوج wulūj
- access in Malay
- capaian
- access in Indonesian
- akses
Examples of access in a sentence
- This site's FAQ says you should log in to access some pages.
- Some users may not be able to access the AOL room.
- All hens in the laying house have ad lib access to feed.
Synonyms of access
Forms of access
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | accesses |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | accesses |
| present participle | accessing |
| past participle | accessed |
| past | accessed |
Origin of access
From Middle English accesse, acces, borrowed from Middle French acces (“attack, onslaught”) or from its source Latin accessus, perfect passive participle of accēdō (“approach; accede”), from ad (“to, toward, at”) + cēdō (“move, yield”). Doublet of accessus. First attested in the early 14th century. The sense "entrance" was first attested about 1380.
First attested in 1962.
Words formed from access
- access agent
- access code
- access control
- access course
- access day
- access journalism
- accessless
- access method
- access modifier
- accessor
- access point
- access road
- access specifier
- access time
- access token
- access violation
- accessway
- anti-access area denial
- controlled-access highway
- data access object
- direct access
- disabled access
- driveway access
- e-access
- inaccess
- limited-access highway
- multiaccess
- nonaccess
- online public access catalog
- open access
- public access
- quick access recorder
- random access
- read-only access
- remote access
- self-access
- deaccess
- reaccess
- unaccessed
Phrases with access
- access days
- ACCESS test
- access codes
- access roads
- access times
- access points
- access tokens
- access courses
- access methods
- access controls
- access modifiers
- disk access time
26 more phrasesFewer phrases
- gold open access
- access specifiers
- access violations
- black open access
- disk access times
- green open access
- bronze open access
- hybrid open access
- rogue access point
- access control list
- average access time
- data access objects
- diamond open access
- rogue access points
- access control lists
- platinum open access
- random access memory
- quick access recorders
- random access memories
- public access television
- static random access memory
- dynamic random access memory
- online public access catalogs
- resistive random access memory
- resistive random access memories
- non-volatile random access memory
Questions about access
- What does access mean?
- Access means a way or means of approaching or entering; an entrance; a passage.
- What is access in Hindi?
- Access in Hindi is अभिगम (abhigam), बार (bār), पहुँच (pahũc). See Access meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is access?
- Access can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce access?
- Access is pronounced /ˈæksɛs/ (UK).
- What is the plural of access?
- The plural of access is accesses.
Words near access in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: access (page history and authors); अभिगम (Hindi) (page history and authors); access (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); गति (Marathi) (page history and authors); দখল (Bengali) (page history and authors); access (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); access (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); access (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); access (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); अवकाश (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); access (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-access.ogg.
Cite this entry: “access.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/access. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.