access

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The right or chance to use, enter, or reach something.

   Students have free access to the library all year round.

2. 2
   noun

   A way of entering or reaching a place.

   The only access to the cottage is a narrow dirt road.

3. 3
   verb

   To reach or get to something.

   How do you access the attic in this house?

4. 4
   verb

   To open or retrieve data from a computer or storage device.

   I accessed my files from a remote server.

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.

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