Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To consume and incorporate (nutrients) into the body after digestion.
- intransitive verb To transform (food) into living tissue by the process of anabolism; metabolize constructively.
- intransitive verb To incorporate and absorb into the mind.
- intransitive verb To make similar; cause to resemble.
- intransitive verb Linguistics To alter (a sound) by assimilation.
- intransitive verb To absorb (immigrants or a culturally distinct group) into the prevailing culture.
- intransitive verb To become assimilated.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make alike; cause to resemble.
- In philology, to render accordant, or less discordant, in sound; bring to or toward agreement in mode of utterance: said of alphabetic sounds as affected by other neighboring sounds, generally (but not always) in the same word. See
assimilation , . - To compare; liken; class.
- To convert into a substance suitable for absorption by an animal or vegetable system; absorb and incorporate into the system; incorporate with organic tissues: as, to
assimilate food. - To bring into conformity; adapt.
- To conform to; make one's own; adopt.
- To become similar; become like something or somebody else; harmonize.
- To be taken into and incorporated with another body; be converted into the substance of another body, as food by digestion.
- To perform the act of converting anything, as food, into the substance of that which converts it: as, “birds assimilate … less than beasts,”
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To bring to a likeness or to conformity; to cause a resemblance between.
- transitive verb rare To liken; to compa�e.
- transitive verb To appropriate and transform or incorporate into the substance of the assimilating body; to absorb or appropriate, as nourishment.
- intransitive verb rare To become similar or like something else.
- intransitive verb To change and appropriate nourishment so as to make it a part of the substance of the assimilating body.
- intransitive verb To be converted into the substance of the assimilating body; to become incorporated.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
incorporate nutrients into thebody afterdigestion . - verb To incorporate or
absorb knowledge into themind . - verb To absorb a group of
people into acommunity . - verb To
compare something to anothersimilar one.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb make similar
- verb take up mentally
- verb become similar to one's environment
- verb become similar in sound
- verb take (gas, light or heat) into a solution
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Your underline assertion, that Mexican immigrants don't want to 'assimilate' is highly questionable, however, depending on how you define 'assimilate'.
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The desire to assimilate is very powerful, it is a variation on the need to conform to society.
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If people don't want to assimilate, that is their right, as long as they obey the laws of the country they live in.
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So to eat without giving nature time to assimilate is to rob her, first of health, then of life; so to read without reflecting is to cram the intellect and paralyze the mind.
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So to eat without giving nature time to assimilate is to rob her, first of health, then life; so to read without reflecting is to cram the intellect and paralyze the mind.
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"assimilate" -- which has meant different things at different times, but has always seemed to require that Indians sell their land for next to nothing.
Crosscut Knute Berger 2010
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"assimilate" -- which has meant different things at different times, but has always seemed to require that Indians sell their land for next to nothing.
Crosscut Knute Berger 2010
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The researchers found that Latino immigrants 'ability to "assimilate" into the broader American social and political culture depends in large part on the way they perceive and project their images in relation to whites.
Michelle Chen: Study: On Path to "Assimilation," Latino Immigrants Cross the Colorline 2010
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The researchers found that Latino immigrants 'ability to "assimilate" into the broader American social and political culture depends in large part on the way they perceive and project their images in relation to whites.
Michelle Chen: Study: On Path to "Assimilation," Latino Immigrants Cross the Colorline 2010
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Among many other important parts of the history of native peoples in California, the show presented the different boarding schools that native children were taken to in order to "assimilate" into white American culture.
April 2010 2010
jwjarvis commented on the word assimilate
assimilation of vocabulary may best be achieved by writing 10 to 20 sentences of each new word in different contexts
September 27, 2010
biocon commented on the word assimilate
Assimilate A: (adjective, past participle) means "likened, compared." B: (noun) 1. "that which is like;" 2. something that has been assimilated (Oxford English Dictionary).
August 10, 2011