access

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A means of approaching, entering, exiting, communicating with, or making use of.
• noun The ability or right to approach, enter, exit, communicate with, or make use of.
• noun Public access.
• noun An increase by addition.
• noun An outburst or onset.
• transitive verb To obtain access to, especially by computer.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A coming to; near approach; admittance; admission: as, to gain access to a prince.
• noun Means of approach or admission; way of entrance or passage to anything: as, the access is through a massive door or a long corridor, or by a neck of land.
• noun Admission to sexual intercourse.
• noun Addition; increase; accession.
• noun The attack or return of a fit or paroxysm of disease, as of a fever; accession.
• noun The approach of the priest to the altar for the purpose of celebrating the eucharist.
• noun In canon law, a right to a certain benefice at some future time, now in abeyance through lack of required age or some other conditions: if in abeyance through actual possession of another, it is equivalent to the right of succession. See coadjutor.
• noun In the Roman Catholic Church, same as accession, 6.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A coming to, or near approach; admittance; admission; accessibility.
• noun The means, place, or way by which a thing may be approached; passage way.
• noun Admission to sexual intercourse.
• noun Increase by something added; addition. [In this sense accession is more generally used.]
• noun An onset, attack, or fit of disease.
• noun A Gallicism A paroxysm; a fit of passion; an outburst.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb transitive To gain or obtain access to.
• verb transitive, computing To have access to (data).
• noun uncountable A way or means of approaching or entering; an entrance; a passage.
• noun uncountable The act of approaching or entering; an advance.
• noun uncountable The right or ability of approaching or entering; admittance; admission; accessibility.
• noun uncountable The quality of being easy to approach or enter.
• noun uncountable Admission to sexual intercourse.
• noun countable An increase by addition; accession; as, an access of territory.
• noun countable An onset, attack, or fit of disease; an ague fit.
• noun countable An outburst of an emotion; a paroxysm; a fit of passion; as, an access of fury.
• noun uncountable, law The right of a non-custodial parent to visit their child.
• noun uncountable, computing The process of locating data in memory.
• noun uncountable, Internet Connection to or communication with a computer program or to the Internet.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb obtain or retrieve from a storage device; as of information on a computer
• verb reach or gain access to
• noun the right to enter
• noun a code (a series of characters or digits) that must be entered in some way (typed or dialed or spoken) to get the use of something (a telephone line or a computer or a local area network etc.)
• noun the act of approaching or entering
• noun the right to obtain or make use of or take advantage of something (as services or membership)
• noun a way of entering or leaving
• noun (computer science) the operation of reading or writing stored information