ascribe

play

verb as·cribe \ə-ˈskrīb\

Definition of ascribe

ascribed

;

ascribing

transitive verb
: to refer to a supposed cause, source, or author : to say or think that (something) is caused by, comes from, or is associated with a particular person or thing These poems are usually ascribed to Homer. They ascribe most of their success to good timing and good luck. She ascribes no importance to having a lot of money.

ascribable

play \-ˈskrī-bə-bəl\ adjective

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Examples of ascribe in a Sentence

ascribed their stunning military victory to good intelligence beforehand

Recent Examples of ascribe from the Web

But the salaries ascribe a certain value to the actors within the industry, especially in an era when the business side of entertainment is much more visible.

— the washington post, cleveland.com, "'Hawaii Five-0' cast departures highlight racial wage gap in TV", 6 July 2017
The U.N. has ascribed responsibility to Assad’s government for three previous attacks during Syria’s six-year civil war.

— lolita c. baldor, The Seattle Times, "Mattis says Syria’s government taking US threat seriously", 28 June 2017
Allen was accused of 12 non-fatal shootings between October 2011 and May 2013, in addition to the three murders ascribed to him by prosecutors.

— ken daley, NOLA.com, "Federal Young Melph Mafia racketeering trial ends with guilty verdicts", 19 June 2017
Frequently, this type of therapy ascribes homosexuality to childhood traumas or neglect caused by parents or others.

— paul sisson, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Conference promotes controversial efforts to 'transform' gays and lesbians", 16 June 2017
Many people have lamented the way in which ascribing bad motives to political rivals makes good governance impossible.

— chris stirewalt, Fox News, "Press pause", 14 June 2017
The authors ascribe most of the problems to a combination of their detection hardware and thermal crosstalk among the photonic devices.

— john timmer, Ars Technica, "Light-based neural network does simple speech recognition", 13 June 2017
Allen, however, is accused of 12 non-fatal shootings between October 2011 and May 2013, in addition to the three murders ascribed to him by prosecutors.

— richard a. webster, NOLA.com, "4 people robbed at gunpoint in Garden District, New Orleans police say", 6 June 2017
Kathy said, ascribing his mood to not being able to play video games.

— Washington Post, "Generations, disabled", 2 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ascribe'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of ascribe

Middle English, from Latin ascribere, from ad- + scribere to write — more at scribe

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First Known Use: 15th century

See Words from the same year

Synonym Discussion of ascribe

ascribe, attribute, assign, impute, credit mean to lay something to the account of a person or thing. ascribe suggests an inferring or conjecturing of cause, quality, authorship. forged paintings formerly ascribed to masters attribute suggests less tentativeness than ascribe, less definiteness than assign . attributed to Rembrandt but possibly done by an associate assign implies ascribing with certainty or after deliberation. assigned the bones to the Cretaceous period impute suggests ascribing something that brings discredit by way of accusation or blame. tried to impute sinister motives to my actions credit implies ascribing a thing or especially an action to a person or other thing as its agent, source, or explanation. credited his teammates for his success