accommodate

Meanings

1. To have enough space for someone or something.
2. To change something to suit a need or a person.

Example sentences

• "The hotel can accommodate two hundred guests."

  Level B2, Meaning 1

• "The school accommodates students with special needs."

  Level C1, Meaning 2

• "We will try to accommodate your request."

  Level B2, Meaning 2

• "The new stadium accommodates fifty thousand fans."

  Level B2, Meaning 1

Synonyms and antonyms

Look-alikes and common mistakes

• adapt : Adapt means you change yourself to fit. Accommodate means you make room or make a change to fit someone else.

Word family and forms

Forms: accommodates, accommodated, accommodating

Word partners

Words and phrases that often go with "accommodate".

• accommodate guests
• accommodate a request
• accommodate your needs
• accommodate up to
• can accommodate
• reasonable accommodation

Origin

Accommodate comes from Latin accommodare, which meant to make fit. It is built from ad, meaning to, and commodus, meaning suitable, which comes from a root meaning measure.

Checked against: Wiktionary, the free dictionary, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Dictionary.com.

Usage notes

One of the most commonly misspelled English words: it has two c's and two m's.

How to remember it

Remember the spelling as two c, two m: ac-com-mo-date. Say it slowly, one syllable at a time.

Test yourself

Learn next at B2

• accommodating Willing to help by adjusting to what someone else needs.
• accompany To go somewhere with someone, or to happen along with something else.
• accord A formal agreement, especially between countries or groups.
• accordance Agreement with a rule, standard, or plan.
• accountant A person whose job is to keep and check financial records.
• accretion The gradual growth or build-up of something as material or layers slow...