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
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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.
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Melissa Willets, Parents, 7 Sep. 2023
His first report doesn’t suggest, however, considering compensation for the extensive unpaid labor of America’s indigenous children, key to the system created to assimilate them.
—Sheila McCann, The Salt Lake Tribune, 4 Sep. 2023
What the filmmaker, along with his co-writer Carolina Cavalli, never forces her to do is adapt or assimilate in a way that seems convenient to easy-peasy uplift, or even closure.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 1 Sep. 2023
His first report doesn’t suggest, however, considering compensation for the extensive unpaid labor of America’s indigenous children, so key to the system created to assimilate them.
—The Salt Lake Tribune, tovlou.github.io, 20 July 2023
Last year, the Department of Interior released a review of the past efforts by the federal government to assimilate Native American children into White American society.
—Nicole Chavez, CNN, 30 Aug. 2023
If ever our descendants make contact with articulate beings from other planets and solar systems, English will doubtless start adding and assimilating words from Martian, Saturnian, and Alpha Centaurian and beaming its vocabulary across outer space.
—Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Aug. 2023
The sitcom, which ran from 1996-2001, was about an alien family who came to earth and had to assimilate to our strange earthly ways.
—Gillian Telling, Peoplemag, 18 Aug. 2023
Lewis explained in order to adjust to their new lives, her family had to change their way of life and assimilate to customs in the U.S.
—Chelsea Hylton, Los Angeles Times, 17 Aug. 2023
Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY, 5 Apr. 2023
With deregulation in the 1980s, the focus of the training shifted to helping women and people of color assimilate into existing corporate cultures.
—Glenn Llopis, Forbes, 26 June 2021
Now, the pressure is on resident advisers and others to help the Class of 2023 assimilate.
—Nick Anderson, Washington Post, 25 Aug. 2019
According to Sessions, a good immigrant assimilates.
—Jeneé Osterheldt, kansascity, 6 Sep. 2017
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'assimilate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Verb
Middle English assimilaten "to make similar," borrowed from Medieval Latin assimilāre, assimulāre "to make similar, digest, compare," going back to Latin, "to pretend, feign, assume the likeness of, cause to resemble, imitate, portray, liken (to)," from as- as- + similāre "to pretend, assume the appearance of by one's conduct, imitate" — more at simulate
Noun
derivative of assimilate entry 1
Verb
1671, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1b
Noun
1935, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near assimilate
Cite this Entry
“Assimilate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assimilate. Accessed 26 Sep. 2023.
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Kids Definition
assimilate
verb
Medical Definition
assimilate
1 of 2 verb
assimilate
2 of 2 noun
More from Merriam-Webster on assimilate
Nglish: Translation of assimilate for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of assimilate for Arabic Speakers
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