Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use attain in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Attain means to come to or reach (a place) by motion or progression. Example: “To attain such a high level of proficiency requires hours of practice each day.”

Examples of attain by meaning

verbTo gain (a desired result or other objective) through effort; to accomplish, to achieve.

  • To attain such a high level of proficiency requires hours of practice each day.
  • But an absolutely right time arrival of all trains on the same day is never attained.1964 July, S. W. Smart, “The Southern Needs No Centralised Control”, in Modern Railways, Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN...
  • Where else could I—without money and family contacts, and at so young an age—hope to attain such an impressive income?2007, Mohsin Hamid, chapter 11, in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Orlando, Fla.; Austin, Tex.: Harcourt, →ISBN, page 157

More sentences with attain

  • When making a tool-assisted speedrun, re-recording is inevitable if you want to attain a good time.From the entry re-record
  • They tried to better themselves by attaining a good education.From the entry better
  • After John officially attained his majority, Robert bought him his first beer. This is a common American rite of passage.From the entry rite of passage
  • This intense work was invariably draining; the Bolshoi style pushed me beyond anything I'd attained before.2017, David Hallberg, A Body of Work: Dancing to the Edge and Back, New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 292. From the entry recoach
  • Some Chuds had attained a prominent position at the court of the early Russian princes.2015, Anti Selart, Livonia, Rus’ and the Baltic Crusades in the Thirteenth Century, BRILL, →ISBN, page 62. From the entry chud
  • We cannot aspire to attain such knowledge on our own and it has to be engifted.2014, Eugene G Breen, The Human Mind and Belief II - Unplugged, →ISBN. From the entry engift
  • Cook never attained meaningful practical experience, but Herron loved site mud on his boots.2008, Kenneth Allinson, Architects and Architecture of London, page 390. From the entry mud on one's boots
  • If Alethophobia infects even one person, we can never attain universal unity.2007, Manoucher Parvin, Alethophobia: Fear of Truth : a Novel. From the entry alethophobia
  • Why it should have attained such longevity is a nice question.2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 242. From the entry nice
  • In order to attain absolute prevision the precipient must be able to function consciously in maximally-dimensional space.2006, W. Whately Smith, A Theory of the Mechanism of Survival, page 108. From the entry precipient
  • After my dishcloths attain holeyness, I give them a decent burial in my compost pile.2006, Ellen Sandbeck, Organic Housekeeping, Scribner, →ISBN, page 120. From the entry holeyness
  • But attaining wisdom, despite our possible "bozone" layers, should still be a priority in our lives.2005 March, Cook David C, David C Cook, chapter CCVIII, in Daily Grace, David C Cook, →ISBN, page 213. From the entry bozone layer
  • In our waters, however, the shipworm seldom attains a length of over a foot-and-a-half long.2004, Donald Launer, “The Lower Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Raritan Bay, and Their Tributaries”, in A Cruising Guide to New Jersey Waters…. From the entry shipworm
  • When Giamatti goes over the top, he transcends Everyman shmuckiness and attains acting immortality.2004 October 25, David Denby, “Drinking and Driving”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived…. From the entry shmuckiness
  • October 29, When you attain a sense of undefeatableness, you will always be high-spirited and confident.1990, Norman Vincent Peale., Have a Great Day, page 117. From the entry undefeatableness
  • The largest dinosaurs of that time were the plateosauri which attained more than six metres in length.1985, Rudolf Daber, Jochen Helms, translated by C.S.V. Salt, Fossils: The Oldest Treasures That Ever Lived, Neptune City, N.J.: T.F.H.…. From the entry plateosaurus
  • This is done having first attained even-mindedness towards all sentient beings.1976, Bstan-paʼi-ñi-ma (Panchen Lama IV), Jeffrey Hopkins, Practice and theory of Tibetan Buddhism. From the entry even-mindedness
  • They erased the immediate and the distant for him, to attain teller attachment, omnicomprehensive company.1974, José Lezama Lima, Paradiso, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 323. From the entry omnicomprehensive
  • One was salaried but had attained the superelite position of partnership in a Wall Street Firm.1973, Joan Huber, Changing Women in a Changing Society, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 168. From the entry superelite
  • The degree of proverbiality, or currency in oral tradition, attained by these exaggerations is difficult to assess.1968, Shirley L. Arora, “Spanish Proverbial Exaggerations from California”, in Western Folklore, volume 27, number 4, page 232. From the entry proverbiality
  • In truth he had already attained that supermanship which he dreamt, taught and lived for.1968, Astrological Magazine, volume 57, page 105. From the entry supermanship
  • Hyperaemia attains a maximum in denervated tissues owing to suppression of the adrenalinic mediator.1959, Romanian Medical Review. From the entry adrenalinic
  • Such sources usually attain brilliance by high current densities in small volumes.1954, Alexander Hollaender, Radiation Biology: Ultraviolet and related radiations, page 123. From the entry steradiancy
  • Sustained research in rocketry had at last succeeded in attaining one of its objectives.1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 28. From the entry foment
  • It attained to cities, kingdoms, most metallurgical arts, some astronomy and calendry, and extraordinarily complex rituals.1948, Alfred Kroeber, Anthropology, page 423. From the entry calendry
  • The pocketknife attained a new status — as indispensable equipment for all men in uniform.1944, Alfred Lief, Camillus: The Story of an American Small Business. From the entry pocketknife
  • The one region of the earth where balanophagy attained its richest development was aboriginal California.1936, Robert Harry Lowie, editor, Essays in Anthropology: Presented to A. L. Kroeber in Celebration of His Sixtieth Birthday, June 11…. From the entry balanephagous
  • The helleries attain a length in the male of about three inches and less in the female.1917, The American Angler, volume 2, page 12. From the entry hellery
  • Caesar describes both as having attained, in his time, the highest perfection.1914, Elizabeth Oke Gordon, Prehistoric London: Its Mounds and Circles, page 117. From the entry castramentation
  • The goal can not be attained by a straight arrow flight.1908, Charles Francis Horne, The Technique of the Novel, page 28. From the entry straight arrow
  • This states that any distributed database can only attain two of three guarantees: consistency, availability and partition tolerance.2023 June 2, Charles Xie, “Trilemma Trade-Offs: A New CAP Theorem For Vector Databases Has Emerged”, Forbes Technology Council, in Forbes…. From the entry trilemma
  • Tarrant attained instant cult status in the community.2023 February 27, Luke Munn, “8chan's Playful Hate”, in Red Pilled - The Allure of Digital Hate, Bielefeld: Bielefeld University Press…. From the entry instant
  • At one point, Ralph must attain a certain level of viral popularity, assisted by the BuzzFeed-esque content guru Yesss (Taraji P.2018 November 14, Jesse Hassenger, “Disney Goes Viral with an Ambitious, Overstuffed Wreck-It Ralph Sequel”, in The A.V. Club, archived…. From the entry viral
  • While starting early can increase your likelihood of attaining millionaire status, the investments you choose play an equally important role.2017 May 16, Maurie Backman, “Here's how to become a millionaire on $56,000 a year”, in CNN Money, archived from the original on 21 Apr 2025. From the entry likelihood
  • Some years later, this “obscure quack” attained permanent nonobscurity when the procedure bearing his name became world famous, saving many lives.2015 July 9, “Letters: Jacob Lawrence’s Champion”, in New York Times. From the entry nonobscurity
  • This maternal signature was discernible until larvae attained postflexion stages.2015 July 31, “Trophic Ecology of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna ( Thunnusthynnus ) Larvae from the Gulf of Mexico and NW Mediterranean Spawning…. From the entry postflexion
  • At last she’d attained such a state.2014, Yelena Akhtiorskaya, chapter 12, in Panic in a Suitcase: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Riverhead Books, →ISBN, part 2 (2008), page 233. From the entry requestless

Meaning of attain

  1. verb To come to or reach (a place) by motion or progression.
  2. verb To arrive at (a certain age or time, condition or state, etc.); to reach.
  3. verb To gain (a desired result or other objective) through effort; to accomplish, to achieve.

Full definition of attain

Questions about attain in a sentence

How do you use attain in a sentence?
Attain is used as a verb and noun. For example: “To attain such a high level of proficiency requires hours of practice each day.”
What is a short sentence with attain?
“At last she’d attained such a state.”
What does attain mean?
Attain means to come to or reach (a place) by motion or progression.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: attain (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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