accomplish

From Middle English accomplisshen, acomplissen, from Old French acompliss-, extended stem of acomplir (Modern French accomplir),^[1] from Vulgar Latin *(ac)complīre, from Latin complēre (“fill up/out, complete”, whence English complete).

First attested in the late 14th century.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈkʌm.plɪʃ/, /əˈkɒm.plɪʃ/^[2][3][4]
• (General American, dialects of Canada) IPA^(key): /əˈkɑm.plɪʃ/, /əˈkʌm.plɪʃ/^[5]

  • Audio (Southern California):

    (file)

• (Canada, dialects of the US) IPA^(key): /əˈkɒm.plɪʃ/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /əˈkɐm.plɪʃ/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /əˈkɐm.pləʃ/
• (Indic) IPA^(key): /əˈkɔm.plɪʃ/, [ɐ.kɔ̞ːm.plɪʃ]; /əˈkəm.plɪʃ/, [ɐ.kɐm.plɪʃ]
• Hyphenation: ac‧com‧plish

accomplish (third-person singular simple present accomplishes, present participle accomplishing, simple past and past participle accomplished)

1. (transitive) To finish successfully.
2. (transitive) To complete, as time or distance.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Daniel 9:2:

     That He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

   • 1855, William H[ickling] Prescott, “War with France”, in History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volume I, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC, book I, page 231:

     But the rising ground which lay between him and the French prevented him from seeing the enemy until he had accomplished half a league or more.

3. (transitive) To execute fully; to fulfill; to complete successfully.

   to accomplish a design, an object, a promise

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 22:37:

     This that is written must yet be accomplished in me

4. (transitive, archaic) To equip or furnish thoroughly; hence, to complete in acquirements; to render accomplished; to polish.
   • 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:

     The armorers accomplishing the knights

   • 1638, John Wilkins, The Discovery of a World in the Moone:

     It [the moon] is fully accomplished for all those ends to which Providence did appoint it.

   • 1863, Charles Cowden Clarke, Shakespeare's Characters:

     These qualities . . . go to accomplish a perfect woman.

5. (transitive, obsolete) To gain; to obtain.
   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     And more unlikely / Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns!

6. (transitive, Philippines) To fill out a form.

• do, perform, fulfill, realize, effect, effectuate, complete, consummate, execute, achieve, perfect, equip, furnish, carry out, pull off

• complete
• comply

• “accomplish”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “accomplish”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “accomplish”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.