Make Your Point: ASSIMILATE

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pronounce ASSIMILATE:

uh SIM uh late

connect this word to others:

Our word assimilate comes from the Latin similis, meaning "like or resembling."

It's closely related to the words similar, simile, simulate, simu____um ("an imitation or a fake version"), and v___simil___de ("apparent truth or realness, often in art or literature").

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

"Assimilate" has Latin bits that literally mean "to make similar to (something else)." We've used it in English since the 1600s to mean "to make (things) similar" in many different senses.

Today, we most commonly use "assimilate" in just a couple of ways, but it still basically means "to become similar to" or "to become part of something, as if absorbing into it."

First, if people assimilate to (or into) a new group, often a culture, they get used to that new group as they become a part of it, changing parts of their own behavior, especially their language, to fit in well with everyone else.

Second, if you assimilate information, you absorb it into your mind, and it becomes a natural part of what you know or how you think.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Verb, sometimes the transitive kind: "Her new friends quickly assimilated her."

And sometimes the intransitive kind: "She quickly assimilated into the new school."

Other forms:

The other verb forms are "assimilated" and "assimilating."

The noun for the process is "assimilation" (or, if you prefer, "assimilating").

And the noun for people or things that assimilate is "assimilators."

how to use it:

"Assimilate" is a common, highly formal word.

When you use it to mean "to change in order to fit in," its tone can be negative or positive. Here's a negative example: "They expected her to assimilate, to forget Chinese entirely and talk in English." And a positive one: "She assimilated easily, picking up English on the playground and making tons of friends."

And when you use "assimilate" to mean "to learn, to digest mentally, to bring into the mind," its tone is usually neutral or positive: "Although I had to watch some of the videos several times each, I finally assimilated the information enough to help my student in his college course on economics."

examples:

"He left the grits on his plate untouched, an unexpressed but articulate declaration, rooted in geography, that the society he married into had not assimilated him."
— Pat Conroy, The Great Santini, 1942

"The paragraph break: a visual bookmark that allows the reader to pause, take a breather, assimilate what he has read, and then find his place again on the page."
— Steven Pinker, The Sense of Style, 2014

has this page helped you understand "assimilate"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "assimilate" without saying "blend in" or "soak in."

try it out:

If you're a fan of Star Trek, the word "assimilate" reminds you of the Borg— in my opinion, the most terrifying group of villains. They're a community of cyborgs who form an interconnected mind and allow no freedom to individual members. They assimilate everyone.

From the wiki: "[The Borg's] ultimate goal was the attainment of 'perfection' through the forcible assimilation of diverse sentient species, technologies, and knowledge which would be added and absorbed into the hive mind."

And so, when they threatened "You will be assimilated," they meant it in both ways: they'd change you to become one of them, and they'd change themselves by taking your knowledge into their own hive mind.

The way I see it, assimilation is the worst thing a villain could possibly do to a hero, especially a hero we've grown to love over the course of the story. Talk about whether you agree or disagree. Would you argue that, say, murder is worse than assimilation into the villainry?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is Confounding Contronyms!

In each issue, I'll give you two quotes, each with a blank. The same word goes in both blanks—but it means opposite things. Your job is to come up with that word: that slippery little contronym. To see the hints, highlight the hidden white text. To see the answer, scroll to the bottom.

Try this today:

Quote 1: "The stars were _____ in force for Taylor Swift's first Eras Tour concert in Miami! Tom Brady, Serena Williams and Hoda Kotb were among the big names who came out to see Swift's show."
— Escher Walcott, People, 19 October 2024

Quote 2: "Bird populations are already imperiled by climate change, habitat loss and cats. Turning lights _____ at night can mitigate one more risk to their lives, experts say."
— Christine Hauser, New York Times, 21 April 2021

Hint 1: This word starts with the letter... O

Hint 2: This word means both... "off/invisible" and "on/visible."

review this word:

1. Opposites of ASSIMILATE (in both senses of the word) are

A. LEAN IN and ENGAGE.
B. STAND OUT and FORGET.
C. DIFFERENTIATE and REMEMBER.

2. When a prefix assimilates, it _____.

A. stays intact as it attaches to a base word, as in the prefix "dis" assimilating to "count," becoming "discount"
B. changes to match the base word, as in the prefix "ad" assimilating to "tract," becoming "attract" (and not "adtract")
C. attaches to a base word in stacks, as in the prefix "micro" assimilating to "kilo" and "gram," becoming "microkilogram" (although this is disallowed by the International System of Units and, you know, silly)

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
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How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
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From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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