accommodation Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun making or becoming suitable; adjusting to circumstances
    fitting; adjustment.
  2. noun a settlement of differences
    • they reached an accommodation with Japan
  3. noun in the theories of Jean Piaget: the modification of internal representations in order to accommodate a changing knowledge of reality
  4. noun living quarters provided for public convenience
    • overnight accommodations are available
  5. noun the act of providing something (lodging or seat or food) to meet a need
  6. noun (physiology) the automatic adjustment in focal length of the natural lens of the eye

WordNet

Ac*com`mo*da"tion noun
Etymology
L. accommodatio, fr. accommodare: cf. F. accommodation.
Definitions
  1. The act of fitting or adapting, or the state of being fitted or adapted; adaptation; adjustment; -- followed by to. "The organization of the body with accommodation to its functions." Sir M. Hale.
  2. Willingness to accommodate; obligingness.
  3. Whatever supplies a want or affords ease, refreshment, or convenience; anything furnished which is desired or needful; -- often in the plural; as, the accomodations -- that is, lodgings and food -- at an inn. Sir W. Scott.
  4. An adjustment of differences; state of agreement; reconciliation; settlement. "To come to terms of accommodation." Macaulay.
  5. The application of a writer's language, on the ground of analogy, to something not originally referred to or intended.
    Many of those quotations from the Old Testament were probably intended as nothing more than accommodations. Paley.
  6. (Com.) (a) A loan of money. (b) An accommodation bill or note.

Webster 1913