ASSIMILATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does assimilate mean? 

• ASSIMILATE (verb)
  The verb ASSIMILATE has 5 senses:

1. take up mentally

2. become similar to one's environment

3. make similar

4. take (gas, light or heat) into a solution

5. become similar in sound

  Familiarity information: ASSIMILATE used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ASSIMILATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they assimilate    ... he / she / it assimilates   
Past simple: assimilated   
Past participle: assimilated   
-ing form: assimilating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Take up mentally

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

absorb; assimilate; ingest; take in

Context example:

he absorbed the knowledge or beliefs of his tribe

Hypernyms (to "assimilate" is one way to...):

acquire; larn; learn (gain knowledge or skills)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "assimilate"):

imbibe (receive into the mind and retain)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

assimilation (in the theories of Jean Piaget: the application of a general schema to a particular instance)

assimilation (the process of assimilating new ideas into an existing cognitive structure)

assimilator (someone (especially a child) who learns (as from a teacher) or takes up knowledge or beliefs)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Become similar to one's environment

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

Immigrants often want to assimilate quickly

Hypernyms (to "assimilate" is one way to...):

adapt; adjust; conform (adapt or conform oneself to new or different conditions)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "assimilate"):

acculturate (assimilate culturally)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Something ----s to somebody
Somebody ----s PP

Antonym:

dissimilate (become dissimilar or less similar)

Derivation:

assimilation (the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another)

assimilation (the state of being assimilated; people of different backgrounds come to see themselves as part of a larger national family)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make similar

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

This country assimilates immigrants very quickly

Hypernyms (to "assimilate" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something PP

Antonym:

dissimilate (make dissimilar; cause to become less similar)

Derivation:

assimilation (the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another)

assimilation (the state of being assimilated; people of different backgrounds come to see themselves as part of a larger national family)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Take (gas, light or heat) into a solution

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

assimilate; imbibe

Hypernyms (to "assimilate" is one way to...):

absorb (become imbued)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

assimilation (the process of absorbing nutrients into the body after digestion)

assimilative; assimilatory (capable of taking (gas, light, or liquids) into a solution)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Become similar in sound

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

The nasal assimilates to the following consonant

Hypernyms (to "assimilate" is one way to...):

change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)

Domain category:

phonetics (the branch of acoustics concerned with speech processes including its production and perception and acoustic analysis)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Antonym:

dissimilate (become dissimilar by changing the sound qualities)

Derivation:

assimilation (a linguistic process by which a sound becomes similar to an adjacent sound)

 Context examples 

This salt is very soluble in water, and is assimilated much more readily than pure caffeine when taken into the stomach.

(Caffeine Citrate, NCI Thesaurus)

Instead of working wickedness by night and growing more debased in the assimilating of it by day, she shall take her place with the other Angels.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The process or act of converting food into chemical substances that can be absorbed and assimilated.

(Digestion, NCI Thesaurus)

The fumarate salt form of the mineral iron. Administration of ferrous fumarate results in elevation of serum iron concentration, which is then assimilated into hemoglobin, required for the transport of oxygen, or trapped in the reticuloendothelial cells for storage.

(Ferrous Fumarate, NCI Thesaurus)

He was a stern, gaunt man, with a harsh voice, and an aggressive manner, but he had the merit of knowing how to assimilate the ideas of other men, and to pass them on in a way which was intelligible and even interesting to the lay public, with a happy knack of being funny about the most unlikely objects, so that the precession of the Equinox or the formation of a vertebrate became a highly humorous process as treated by him.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I believe he is of mine;—I am sure he is—I feel akin to him—I understand the language of his countenance and movements: though rank and wealth sever us widely, I have something in my brain and heart, in my blood and nerves, that assimilates me mentally to him.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)