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''accede'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20250725234437-00-⌔

accede - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Verb

accede (third-person singular simple present accedes, present participle acceding, simple past and past participle acceded)

  • (intransitive) To agree or assent [with to ‘a proposal, a request’]; to give way. [from 16th c.]
    • ✤ Synonyms: come around, concede, agree, acquiesce, assent; see also Thesaurus: accede
    • ✤ Antonym: refuse
    • ✤ to accede to a request
    • ✤ It was added that if he acceded to these proposals, his fortresses and sea-ports should be garrisoned by French and Spanish troops to protect him from England’s vengeance, but that if he refused—and the answer was to be given within four days—he must take the consequences of such a line of policy.1
    • ✤ But in 1874 the editors of Scribner’s Monthly requested me to publish a popular account of the Colorado exploration in that journal. To this I acceded and prepared four short articles, which were elaborately illustrated from photographs in my possession.2
    • ✤ Referring to the “hero of the day,” No. 92220, Mr. Hanks acceded that she was not of the Great Western breed, but they had done their best to make up for that by “dollying her up in good old Western colours and conferring upon her the finest honour we can—the halo or crown of Swindon, the copper top to her chimney.”3
    • ✤ Some of the countries of Eastern Europe had already acceded to all the privatization and austerity measures drawn up by imperialist bankers. The Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia was the last of the Eastern European workers’ states trying to hold on to what was left of its planned, socialized framework of production and its collective ownership.4
    • ✤ The Department of War has stated they will only contract with AI companies who accede to “any lawful use” and remove safeguards in the cases mentioned above. […] Regardless, these threats do not change our position: we cannot in good conscience accede to their request.5
  • (intransitive) To come to an office, state or dignity; to attain, assume (a position) [with to]. [from 18th c.]
    • ✤ the house of Hanover acceded to the English throne
    • ✤ Maintenon had been governess to the children in the late 1670s before acceding to the king’s favours.6
  • (intransitive) To become a party to an agreement or a treaty [with to].
    • ✤ to accede to the European Union
  • (archaic, intransitive) To approach; to arrive, to come forward. [15th–19th c.]
  • (intransitive, now rare) To give one’s adhesion; to join up with (a group, etc.); to become part of. [from 15th c.]
    • ✤ Synonyms: band together, enroll
    • ✤ Antonyms: leave, secede, split off

Etymology

First attested in the early 15th century. From Middle English acceden, from Latin accēdō (“approach, accede”), formed from ad (“to, toward, at”) + cēdō (“move, yield”) (English cede). Compare French accéder. Unrelated to ascend, aside from the common ad prefix.

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /əkˈsiːd/, /ækˈsiːd/, /əˈsiːd/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -iːd

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. c. 1876, E. H. Nolan, The History of England ‎, volume III: ↩

  2. 1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, “Preface”, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, →ISBN, →OCLC, page iii: ↩

  3. 1960 May, “Evening Star”, in Railway Magazine, page 307, referring to a new steam locomotive, the last built for British Railways: ↩

  4. 2007 November 18, Leslie Feinberg, “‘Big lie’ and breakup of Yugoslavia”, in Workers World ‎: ↩

  5. 2026 February 26, Dario Amodei, “Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War”, in Anthropic ‎: ↩

  6. 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 32: ↩

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