acquiesce

Synonym Chooser

How is the word acquiesce distinct from other similar verbs?

Some common synonyms of acquiesce are accede, agree, assent, consent, and subscribe. While all these words mean "to concur with what has been proposed," acquiesce implies tacit acceptance or forbearance of opposition.

acquiesced to his boss's wishes

When is it sensible to use accede instead of acquiesce?

The words accede and acquiesce can be used in similar contexts, but accede implies a yielding, often under pressure, of assent or consent.

officials acceded to the prisoners' demands

When would agree be a good substitute for acquiesce?

Although the words agree and acquiesce have much in common, agree sometimes implies previous difference of opinion or attempts at persuasion.

finally agreed to come along

When could assent be used to replace acquiesce?

The meanings of assent and acquiesce largely overlap; however, assent implies an act involving the understanding or judgment and applies to propositions or opinions.

voters assented to the proposal

When is consent a more appropriate choice than acquiesce?

While the synonyms consent and acquiesce are close in meaning, consent involves the will or feelings and indicates compliance with what is requested or desired.

consented to their daughter's going

When can subscribe be used instead of acquiesce?

While in some cases nearly identical to acquiesce, subscribe implies not only consent or assent but hearty approval and active support.

subscribes wholeheartedly to the idea

Examples Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of acquiesce Urged by the oversight board to seek an outside opinion, VA Secretary Denis McDonough acquiesced and retained Urban Land Institute to field a panel of experts to make recommendations. Doug Smith, Los Angeles Times, 24 Sep. 2024 Theroux’s character Rory, her boyfriend and TV producer, goes from discouraging her from taking the drugs to acquiescing and taking a pill himself. Jack Smart, Peoplemag, 5 Sep. 2024 While Musk presents himself as a free speech absolutist, X has acquiesced to requests to remove profiles and posts in countries including India, Turkey and Hungary. Lora Kolodny, CNBC, 19 Sep. 2024 Such a depiction would hold little water, however, if not for Washington’s own response to the crisis in Gaza, which has supported or at least acquiesced in Israel’s worst excesses. Lynn Kuok, Foreign Affairs, 3 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for acquiesce 
Recent Examples of Synonyms for acquiesce
Verb
  • Capitol, however, was morally opposed to leaving any spare change rattling in the kids’ pockets—and the kids agreed.
    Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 23 Nov. 2024
  • Kristin Chenoweth, who portrayed the good witch in Wicked on Broadway opposite Idina Menzel’s Elphaba, agreed.
    Christy Piña, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 Nov. 2024
Verb
  • When Nguyen assented, the man pledged to vote for him, no questions asked.
    Daniel Miller, Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2024
  • Sigrid Nunez’s The Friend (2018) and Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry (2018) asked whether a woman can assent to her subjugation.
    Hillary Kelly, The Atlantic, 10 Aug. 2024
Verb
  • Understanding that Congress would never have consented to spend that much public money in this manner, the White House has sought at every point to ensure that its conduct was excluded from the customary constitutional processes.
    The Editors, National Review, 24 Oct. 2024
  • This technology poses unprecedented challenges to consent, privacy and image rights.
    Virginie Berger, Forbes, 22 Oct. 2024
Verb
  • What appears to be lacking in the U.S.’s inability to have Israel accede to its pleas to de-escalate is another geopolitical concept that has, it is argued, worked elsewhere: strategic ambiguity.
    Charles Walldorf, The Conversation, 3 Oct. 2024
  • But if Moscow could not enforce a sphere, then on what grounds should the West have acceded?
    Robert Kagan, Foreign Affairs, 6 Apr. 2022

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Cite this Entry

“Acquiesce.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/acquiesce. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.

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