Meaning of assimilate in English

assimilate

/əˈsɪm.ɪ.leɪt/ us

/əˈsɪm.ə.leɪt/

assimilate verb [I or T] (JOIN)

to become part of a group, country, society, etc., or to make someone or something become part of a group, country, society, etc.:

The European Union should remain flexible enough to assimilate more countries quickly.

You shouldn't expect immigrants to assimilate into an alien culture immediately.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Including and containing

See more results »

assimilate verb [I or T] (LEARN)

to understand and remember new information and make it part of your basic knowledge so that you can use it as your own:

It's hard to assimilate so much information.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Learning & knowing

See more results »

assimilate verb [I or T] (ABSORB)

to absorb food or a substance into the tissue of a living organism:

In this form vitamins can be easily assimilated by the body.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Animal & plant biology - general words

See more results »

assimilate verb [I or T] (OF SOUNDS)

[ I or T ] phonetics specialized

(of a speech sound) to be influenced by the sound that comes before or after it; (of a speaker) to pronounce a speech sound in a way that is influenced by the sound that comes before or after it:

Here, in the sound [tʃ], the initial dental sound [t] is lost and assimilated to [ʃ].

They found that velar and labial consonants sometimes assimilate in English.

In their analysis, they find that speakers prefer not to assimilate sibilants or labials.

More examplesFewer examples

The /v/ in "fivepence" will be devoiced (because of the following /p/) and may even be assimilated to a voiceless /f/: /faifpens/.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Linguistics: phonology & phonetics

See more results »

Related words

assimilable
assimilation
assimilative

(Definition of assimilate from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

assimilate | American Dictionary

assimilate

verb [ I/T ]

/əˈsɪm·əˌleɪt/

Add to word list Add to word list

to take in and make a part of your basic knowledge something learned from others, so that you can use it as your own:

[ T ] We hoped the students would assimilate the information contained in the lecture.

People who are or become assimilated in a society become similar to others by learning and using the customs and culture of the new society:

[ T ] Once outsiders, they had now been assimilated into the cultural mainstream.

(Definition of assimilate from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of assimilate

assimilate

After assimilating some additional data in the following sections, we shall return to this possibility in 5.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Words with too weak a weight in domains (weight < 0.1) are not kept for computing the similarity, as they are assimilated to noise.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Religious differences are not comic but a source of bloodthirstiness, and religious conversion figures importandy as the exotic female assimilates into western religion.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

As already noted, he contended that foreigners would strengthen the national organism by assimilating into it.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

All languages have assimilated variant pronunciations deeleebobb/pper.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

From the 4th to 9th centuries the region underwent profound changes as one group displaced, assimilated, or mixed with others to produce new ethnicities.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

She reasons that cliticisation differs crucially from handshape assimilation, where orientation assimilates as well.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The second process is dominant handshape assimilation, where the clitic retains its movement but assimilates its handshape to that of the host.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They have assimilated, in part or in full, many aspects of western culture.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Nonetheless, the statement is of importance because it allows us to better appreciate how the opera was seen and its message assimilated.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Translocation of photosynthetically assimilated carbon in tea plants.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Transformations, slight enough so that new objects can be assimilated by their recipients, provide the creative elements on which culture is based.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Thus, thoughts and perceptions of the trauma may not be fully assimilated and integrated into coherent memories.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Generally each society and culture has drugs of choice that have been assimilated to its cultural practices.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The information appropriately becomes a tutorial or starting point for interested readers, rather than the definitive reference to be assimilated uncritically.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of assimilate

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of assimilate?

Translations of assimilate

in Chinese (Traditional)

加入, 融入, （使）同化…

Meaning of assimilate in English

assimilate verb [I or T] (JOIN)

assimilate verb [I or T] (LEARN)

assimilate verb [I or T] (ABSORB)

assimilate verb [I or T] (OF SOUNDS)

Related words

assimilate | American Dictionary

Examples of assimilate

Translations of assimilate

Browse

Learn more with +Plus

Learn more with +Plus