What does acquaintance mean?
Word: Acquaintance
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Acquaintance means a person you know a little but who is not a close friend. It can also mean some knowledge of a subject.
Synonyms: contact, associate, familiarity
How do you spell acquaintance?
Syllables: ac - quain - tance
Tricky part: After the qu comes ai, as in quaint and paint, not a on its own.
Watch out for: acquaintence, acquantance, aquaintence
Memory tip: The word quaint sits in the middle of acquaintance: picture meeting an acquaintance outside a quaint old cottage.
Idioms and Phrases
- make someone's acquaintance: to meet someone for the first time Example: "I was glad to make your acquaintance at the science fair."
Acquaintance in a sentence
Example 1: Mr Kapoor is only an acquaintance of my father, not a close friend.
Example 2: The school trip gave us our first acquaintance with life in a hill village.
Example 3: At the wedding, Grandma met an old acquaintance from her college days.
Fun Fact
Acquaintance came into English from Old French acointier, to make known, which goes back to the same Latin root as recognise.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word:
acquaintance
a) colleague
b) stranger
c) companion
d) neighbour
Show answer
b) stranger. An acquaintance is someone you know a little; a stranger is someone you do not know at all.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
My grandfather met an old aquaintance at the railway station, and they chatted for an hour.
a) station
b) chatted
c) grandfather
d) aquaintance
Show answer
d) aquaintance. A silent c comes before the qu, as in acquit.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the incorrectly spelt word:
a) acquaintanse
b) acquire
c) allowance
d) assurance
Show answer
a) acquaintanse. The last sound is spelt ce, as in allowance and assurance.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which person would you call just an acquaintance?
a) your own grandmother
b) your best friend since nursery
c) your twin brother
d) a shopkeeper you nod to each week
Show answer
d) a shopkeeper you nod to each week
2. Someone with only a slight acquaintance with chess ____.
a) knows a little about the game
b) teaches chess at a club
c) is a national chess champion
d) has never heard of chess
Show answer
a) knows a little about the game
