Meaning & use
accessor
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Meanings
nouncountablelegalformal
In law, a person who helps someone commit a crime without being the main offender.
Grammar: Use it with 'to' for the crime: accessor to the crime.
Patterns
- accessor to something
The court treated him as an accessor to the fraud, not the planner.
She was charged as an accessor to the robbery.
An accessor may receive a lighter sentence than the principal offender.
nouncountablecomputingtechnical
In computing and databases, a function or method that reads or changes stored data.
Grammar: Often used in programming contexts: a getter or setter accessor.
Patterns
- accessor function
- accessor method
The class has an accessor that returns the user's name.
Use an accessor to read the value instead of touching the field directly.
The accessor method hides the internal data structure.
Word forms
| plural | accessors |
|---|
Common combinations
- accessor to a crime
- He was named as an accessor to the crime.
- accessor method
- The accessor method simply returns the stored value.
- accessor function
- Write an accessor function for each private field.
- charged as an accessor
- She was charged as an accessor after the theft.
Synonyms and how they differ
- accessory
- 'Accessory' is the usual everyday word for a helper in a crime, while 'accessor' is more formal and mostly legal.
- accomplice
- 'Accomplice' suggests someone who actively takes part in the crime, often more involved than an accessor.
Word family
Commonly confused: accessor or assessor? accessor or accessory?
accessor vs assessor
'Assessor' means someone who evaluates or values something, such as a tax assessor; 'accessor' is about helping in a crime or reading data.
accessor vs accessory
'Accessory' is the common word for both a crime helper and a fashion item; 'accessor' is rare outside law and computing.
Practice
The judge said he was an ______ to the crime because he drove the getaway car.
Choose one answer.
'Accessory' is the usual word for a person who helps in a crime. 'Accessor' is legal and technical, and 'assessor' means someone who evaluates.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “accessor”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.