Synonyms for acquaintance
ac·quain·tance

WiktionaryRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. acquaintancenoun

   Synonyms:
   intimacy, familiarity, knowledge, fellowship

2. acquaintancenoun

   A state of being acquainted, or of having intimate, or more than slight or superficial, knowledge; personal knowledge gained by intercourse short of that of friendship or intimacy

   I know of the man; but have no acquaintance with him.

   Synonyms:
   familiarity, knowledge, fellowship, intimacy

3. acquaintancenoun

   A person or persons with whom one is acquainted.

   Synonyms:
   fellowship, intimacy, knowledge, familiarity

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:1.6 / 7 votes

1. acquaintance

   Acquaintance between persons supposes that each knows the other; we may know a public man by his writings or speeches, and by sight, but can not claim acquaintance unless he personally knows us. There may be pleasant acquaintance with little companionship; and conversely, much companionship with little acquaintance, as between busy clerks at adjoining desks. So there may be association in business without intimacy or friendship. Acquaintance admits of many degrees, from a slight or passing to a familiar or intimate acquaintance; but acquaintance unmodified commonly signifies less than familiarity or intimacy. As regards persons, familiarity is becoming restricted to the undesirable sense, as in the proverb, "Familiarity breeds contempt;" hence, in personal relations, the word intimacy, which refers to mutual knowledge of thought and feeling, is now uniformly preferred. Friendship includes acquaintance with some degree of intimacy, and ordinarily companionship, though in a wider sense friendship may exist between those who have never met, but know each other only by word and deed. Acquaintance does not involve friendship, for one may be well acquainted with an enemy. Fellowship involves not merely acquaintance and companionship, but sympathy as well. There may be much friendship without much fellowship, as between those whose homes or pursuits are far apart. There may be pleasant fellowship which does not reach the fulness of friendship. Compare ATTACHMENT; FRIENDSHIP; LOVE. As regards studies, pursuits, etc., acquaintance is less than familiarity, which supposes minute knowledge of particulars, arising often from long experience or association.

   Synonyms:
   association, companionship, experience, familiarity, fellowship, friendship, intimacy, knowledge

   Antonyms:
   ignorance, ignoring, inexperience, unfamiliarity

   Preposition:
   Acquaintance with a subject; of one person with another; between persons.

Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. acquaintance

   Synonyms:
   knowledge, intimacy, familiarity, experience, companionship

   Antonyms:
   ignorance, unfamiliarity, inexperience, well has also the colloquial meaning of a person with whom one i s acquainted

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:5.0 / 1 vote

1. acquaintance, familiarity, conversance, conversancynoun

   personal knowledge or information about someone or something

   Synonyms:
   intimacy, liberty, casualness, conversancy, closeness, friend, familiarity, indecorum, impropriety, conversance, acquaintanceship

   Antonyms:
   stranger, unknown, alien

2. acquaintance, acquaintanceshipnoun

   a relationship less intimate than friendship

   Synonyms:
   friend, conversancy, acquaintanceship, familiarity, conversance

   Antonyms:
   unknown, stranger, alien

3. acquaintance, friendnoun

   a person with whom you are acquainted

   "I have trouble remembering the names of all my acquaintances"; "we are friends of the family"

   Synonyms:
   ally, booster, conversancy, admirer, friend, familiarity, champion, supporter, conversance, acquaintanceship, protagonist

   Antonyms:
   alien, stranger, unknown

Matched Categories

1. • Information
   • Person
   • Relationship

Dictionary of English SynonymesRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. acquaintancenoun

   Synonyms:
   familiarity, familiar knowledge

2. acquaintancenoun

   Synonyms:
   friend (with whom one is not intimate)

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated WordsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. acquaintancenoun

   Synonyms:
   familiarity, kith

   Antonyms:
   ignorance, unfamiliarity, unacquaintance

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:0.0 / 0 votes

1. List of paraphrases for "acquaintance":

   knowledge

How to pronounce acquaintance?

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Words popularity by usage frequency

How to use acquaintance in a sentence?

1. Police Cmdr. Greg McEachern:

   These assaults were not date rapes. They were not acquaintance rapes. These assaults were violent rapes committed by a serial rapist -- a sexual deviant predator who was not going to stop until it was caught.

2. John Calvin:

   Without Christ, sciences in every department are vain....The man who knows not God is vain, though he should be conversant with every branch of learning. Nay more, we may affirm this too with truth, that these choice gifts of God -- expertness of mind, acuteness of judgment, liberal sciences, and acquaintance with languages, are in a manner profaned in every instance in which they fall to the lot of wicked men.

3. Samuel Johnson:

   I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance.

4. Ambrose Bierce:

   Acquaintance, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to.

5. Selwyn Champion:

   To read a book for the first time is to make the acquaintance of a new friend; to read it a second time is to meet an old one.