acknowledge vs ask

acknowledge

verb
  • To own or recognize in a particular quality, character or relationship; to admit the claims or authority of; to give recognition to. 

  • To own as genuine or valid; to assent to (a legal instrument) to give it validity; to avow or admit in legal form. 

  • To be grateful of (e.g. a benefit or a favour) 

  • To admit the knowledge of; to recognize as a fact or truth; to declare one's belief in 

  • To report (the receipt of a message to its sender). 

ask

verb
  • To take (a person's situation) as an example. 

  • To interrogate or enquire of (a person). 

  • To put forward (a question) to be answered. 

  • To request or petition; usually with for. 

  • To invite. 

  • To publish in church for marriage; said of both the banns and the persons. 

  • To request permission to do something. 

  • To require, demand, claim, or expect, whether by way of remuneration or return, or as a matter of necessity. 

  • To request (information, or an answer to a question). 

noun
  • An act or instance of asking. 

  • An asking price. 

  • A message sent to a blog on social networking platform Tumblr, which can be publicly posted and replied to by the recipient. 

  • An eft; newt. 

  • A lizard. 

  • Something asked or asked for. 

How often have the words acknowledge and ask occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )