acculturation
noun
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What is the difference between acculturation, assimilation, and amalgamation?
Acculturation is one of several forms of culture contact, and has a couple of closely related terms, including assimilation and amalgamation. Although all three of these words refer to changes due to contact between different cultures, there are notable differences between them. Acculturation is often tied to political conquest or expansion, and is applied to the process of change in beliefs or traditional practices that occurs when the cultural system of one group displaces that of another. Assimilation refers to the process through which individuals and groups of differing heritages acquire the basic habits, attitudes, and mode of life of an embracing culture. Amalgamation refers to a blending of cultures, rather than one group eliminating another (acculturation) or one group mixing itself into another (assimilation).
Examples of acculturation in a Sentence
Debra Boggs, Forbes.com, 27 May 2025
Far from being an act of resistance, could de-skilling actually grease the wheels of avant-garde acculturation, facilitating the movement of capital into every last nook and cranny of cultural production, even the most seemingly resistant?
—Gordon Hughes, Artforum, 1 Nov. 2024
More acculturation also means such second-generation Asian Americans place a greater emphasis on the individual than on the collective, Ng said.
—Kimmy Yam, NBC News, 15 June 2024
Contact with the home country became more sporadic, use of the native language began to fall away, and, ultimately, intermarriage completed a process of acculturation that had begun when the first children born to immigrant parents headed off to an American school.
—Ray Suarez, Foreign Affairs, 1 Sep. 2012
See All Example Sentences for acculturation
Cite this Entry
“Acculturation.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/acculturation. Accessed 12 Jul. 2025.
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