Joseph ConradFrancis Cutler Marshall
What prepositions are used with assimilate?: Usage Guide
When assimilate is followed by a preposition, transitive senses 2a and 2b commonly take to and into and less frequently with; sense 2c regularly takes to; sense 3 most often takes to and sometimes with. The most frequent prepositions used with the intransitive sense are to and into.
-ˌlāt
Did you know?
Linguistic assimilation?
There are a handful of words in English that are examples of themselves, representatives of the very things that they describe. One such word is sesquipedalian ("having many syllables" or "characterized by the use of long words"). Another example, in a slightly less obvious fashion, is assimilate. When used as a technical word to describe a certain process of language change, assimilate refers to the habit that some sounds have of becoming more like the sounds that are close to them in a word (see assimilation, sense 3). For instance, the original spelling of immovable in English was inmovable, and over time the n began to sound more like its neighboring m, to the point that it actually became that letter.
Something similar occurred before assimilate was a word in English. Assimilate comes from the Latin prefix ad- (meaning "to, towards") and similis ("similar"). Over time the d of the prefix ad- assimilated itself with the s of similis.
Examples of assimilate in a Sentence
Stephan Thernstrom, Times Literary Supplement, 26 May 2000
Those groups were eagerly assimilating into the larger culture and rejecting their own cuisine …
—Corby Kummer, New York Times Book Review, 16 Aug. 1998
The mistaken attempts to assimilate Lindner's paintings into the Pop Art movement in the 1960s …
—Hilton Kramer, Arts & Antiques, January 1997
Children need to assimilate new ideas.
There was a lot of information to assimilate at school.
Schools were used to assimilate the children of immigrants.
They found it hard to assimilate to American society.
Many of these religious traditions have been assimilated into the culture.
Kristen Taketa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Apr. 2025
That fear forces them to assimilate, which can lead to them betraying their core ideals.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 17 Apr. 2025
A.a. Dowd, Rolling Stone, 17 Apr. 2025
Either assimilate, leave voluntarily, or be deported.
—Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 6 Nov. 2023
See All Example Sentences for assimilate
Cite this Entry
“Assimilate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assimilate. Accessed 3 May. 2025.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
assimilate
1 of 2 verb
assimilate
2 of 2 noun
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