Assimilate

How to spell assimilate

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce assimilate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does assimilate mean?

1. verbTo absorb and integrate something, such as information, nutrients, or people, into a larger whole.

Assimilate in a sentence

• New staff need a few weeks to assimilate the company procedures.

• The body cannot assimilate certain nutrients without enough vitamin D.

Where does assimilate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin verb assimilare, an alteration of assimulare, meaning 'to make like' or 'to copy'. It was built from the prefix ad-, meaning 'to' or 'toward', which assimilated into 'as-' before the following s, plus similis, the ordinary Latin word for 'like' or 'similar'. The literal idea was to render one thing similar to another, and from that grew the senses of absorbing food into the body, taking in knowledge, and blending people into a wider community. English picked it up in the late 1300s, partly through Old French, first in the bodily sense of digestion before the cultural and intellectual meanings spread. The very same similis root sits inside 'similar', 'simile', and 'resemble', and noticing that buried 'simil' is the best guard against the spelling, since the double s at the front and the single m and single l in the middle are exactly where writers slip.

How the word is built

• as- (variant of ad-: to, toward)
• simil (from Latin similis: like, similar)
• -ate (verb-forming suffix)