ac|cept

ac|cept «ak SEHPT», transitive verb.

1. to take or receive (what is offered or given); consent to take: »

I accept your gift gratefully.

SYNONYM(S): See syn. under receive.

2. to consent to; say yes to: »

She asked me to go to the party and I accepted her invitation.

3. to take as true or satisfactory; believe: »

The teacher won't accept your excuse.

SYNONYM(S): acknowledge.

4. to receive with liking and approval: »

I soon accepted the new student as a friend. The design of the new car was not accepted by the public. Scholars now generally accept Einstein's theory of relativity.

SYNONYM(S): approve.

5. to undertake as a responsibility: »

My sister accepted a position as cashier.

SYNONYM(S): assume.

6. Commerce. to sign and agree to pay: »

to accept a promissory note.

7. to receive (a committee report) as satisfactory.

8. to understand; costrue: »

Can we accept this interpretation of the manuscript as correct?

9. Medicine. to take into the body without rejecting: »

A mouse whose thymus has been removed…will accept a skin graft from an unrelated animal, whereas normal mice invariably reject such foreign grafts (Scientific American).

–v.i.

to say yes to an invitation; accept a suggestion or offer: »

I was invited and I accepted.

╂[< Latin acceptāre (frequentative) < accipere receive < ad- to + capere take]

Usage Accept, except are often confused because they are similar in sound. Accept, always a verb, has as its basic meaning “to take to (oneself)” and is a synonym of receive: »

He accepted the gift.

Except, sometimes a verb, sometimes a preposition, has a basic sense of taking out: the verb is a synonym of omit, exclude; the preposition is a synonym of but: »

We can call his career brilliant if we except that one blunder he made in his last speech. Everyone except John went in.