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   assimilate

   /əˈsɪmɪleɪt/

   verb

   • 1. take in and understand fully (information or ideas): "Marie tried to assimilate the week's events"
   • ▪ absorb and integrate (people, ideas, or culture) into a wider society or culture: "pop trends are assimilated into the mainstream with alarming speed" Similar subsumeincorporateintegrateabsorbengulfswallow uptake overco-optnaturalizeadoptembraceacceptadmitrare:acculturate
   • ▪ become absorbed and integrated into a society or culture: "the older generation had more trouble assimilating"
   • ▪ (of the body or any biological system) absorb and digest (food or nutrients): "the sugars in the fruit are readily assimilated by the body" Similar absorbtake inacquirepick upgraspcomprehendunderstandlearnmasterdigestingestimbibedrink insoak ininformal:get the hang ofget
   • 2. regard as similar; liken: "philosophers had assimilated thought to perception"
   • ▪ become similar: "the Churches assimilated to a certain cultural norm"
   • ▪ make (a sound) more like another in the same or next word: "the ‘v’ in ‘fivepence’ may be assimilated to a voiceless ‘f’ (because of the ‘p’)"

   Word Origin late Middle English: from Latin assimilat- ‘absorbed, incorporated’, from the verb assimilare, from ad- ‘to’ + similis ‘like’.

   Derivatives

   • 1. assimilable adjective
   • 2. assimilative adjective
   • 3. assimilatory adjective

   Scrabble Points: 12

   • A

     1

   • S

     1

   • S

     1

   • I

     1

   • M

     3

   • I

     1

   • L

     1

   • A

     1

   • T

     1

   • E

     1

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