assimilate
/əˈsɪmɪleɪt
/verb [with object]
1Take in and understand fully (information or ideas): Marie tried to assimilate the week’s events...
- Therefore, after an introduction during staff orientation and some hands-on experience in the first week or two, staff members will have a better context and foundation for assimilating the information.
- The committee, which is still working on firming their plans, is now assimilating the information on the alumni and how they plan to contribute to the university.
- The mother of four said using games and learning exercises to improve children's self esteem helped them assimilate information quicker, improve concentration and enhance natural talent.
1.1Absorb and integrate (people, ideas, or culture) into a wider society or culture: pop trends are assimilated into the mainstream with alarming speed...
- As these pagan cultures were forcibly assimilated by Christian society, some of their original beliefs were blended with the new religion.
- They missed out on education before they even came here and it's extremely difficult for them to be assimilated into mainstream society.
- The danger exists that universities will be so assimilated into society that we will no longer be the kind of collectors of talent that allow creativity to blossom.
Synonyms
subsume, incorporate, integrate, absorb, engulf, swallow up, take over, co-opt, naturalize, adopt, embrace, accept, admit
rare acculturate
2(Of the body or any biological system) absorb and digest (food or nutrients): the sugars in the fruit are readily assimilated by the body...
- At the same time, there is a stimulation to the growth of health-friendly, aerobic bacteria which help you digest and assimilate the needed nutrients.
- He could not assimilate the nutrients in food even if he had an appetite.
- In fact, they say, nobody knows what the correct quantity of these medicines for children is or how their systems assimilate the drugs.
Synonyms
absorb, take in, acquire, pick up, grasp, comprehend, understand, learn, master;
digest, ingest, imbibe, drink in, soak in
informal get the hang of, get
3Regard as similar; liken: philosophers had assimilated thought to perception
3.1 [no object] Become similar: the Churches assimilated to a certain cultural norm...
- During that period, Catholic schools have steadily become assimilated to the non-denominational schools in terms of curriculum, teaching methods, assessment and examinations.
- The population of the empire included Siamese and probably other Austroasiatic peoples who gradually assimilated to the Khmer.
- Those targets will be partly quantitative (and thus more closely assimilated to indicators) and partly qualitative.
3.2 Phonetics 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’)...
- In most circumstances, long u is music-u, the initial i glide being assimilated to produce truth-u only after certain consonants.
Derivatives
assimilable
/ adjective ...- Sport and religious imagery are equally assimilable.
- This led to a labor theory of intellectual production that was assimilable to the Marxist notion of the labor theory of value.
- Medieval writers, especially lawyers, often assumed, or tried to assume, that all those falling below a certain level were more or less assimilable into the common designation of serfs.
assimilative
/ adjective ...- The assimilative forces that absorbed those immigrants and their languages are in fact even more powerful today.
- Furthermore, the connection between assimilative campaigns and nation-building, though frequently asserted, is not convincingly demonstrated.
- The cumulative effects of concentrated human activities can create large-scale or long-term environmental consequences beyond the assimilative capacity of the environment.
assimilator
- Their contributions to nationalism were hidden in two ways: first, because nationalism contains many patriarchal assumptions, and second, because feminists often focus on women as victims, not assimilators.
- In other words, so-called assimilators are not aping heterosexual norms but instead embracing the middle class lifestyle?
- By using the word ‘freedom’ in this statement about his search for a poetic language, he gestures toward the concept of liberation that lies at the center of narratives that portray him as a model assimilator.
assimilatory
- The Israeli ministry of education applies assimilatory ideologies, and assumes that Hebrew should be the language of instruction, not Russian.
- An immediate first line of defense to nutrient deficiency is the activation of assimilatory mechanisms, and this is well established for copper as well.
- It is thus not surprising that regulatory interactions between assimilatory sulphate and nitrate assimilation in plants were long established.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin assimilat- 'absorbed, incorporated', from the verb assimilare, from ad- 'to' + similis 'like'.