as·sim·i·late

(ə-sĭm′ə-lāt′)

v. as·sim·i·lat·ed, as·sim·i·lat·ing, as·sim·i·lates

v.tr.

1. Physiology

a. To consume and incorporate (nutrients) into the body after digestion.

b. To transform (food) into living tissue by the process of anabolism; metabolize constructively.

2. To incorporate and absorb into the mind: assimilate knowledge.

3. To make similar; cause to resemble.

4. Linguistics To alter (a sound) by assimilation.

5. To absorb (immigrants or a culturally distinct group) into the prevailing culture.

v.intr.

To become assimilated.

[Middle English assimilaten, from Latin assimilāre, assimilāt-, to make similar to : ad-, ad- + similis, like; see sem- in Indo-European roots.]

as·sim′i·la′tor n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

assimilator - someone (especially a child) who learns (as from a teacher) or takes up knowledge or beliefs

learner, scholar

individual, mortal, person, somebody, someone, soul - a human being; "there was too much for one person to do"

memoriser, memorizer - a person who learns by rote

quick study, sponge - someone able to acquire new knowledge and skills rapidly and easily; "she soaks up foreign languages like a sponge"

dweeb, grind, nerd, swot, wonk - an insignificant student who is ridiculed as being affected or boringly studious

tutee - learns from a tutor

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References in periodicals archive

To make the album, which the film chronicles in a way that enhances the album's recordings, Hancock bounced between assimilator and leader while working with Christina Aguilera, Paul Simon, Phish's Trey Anastasio and Annie Lennox.

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The "Borg Assimilator" is the Carolinas' first flying coaster.

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presumptions and the rationality of the Assimilator's demands are

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The graduation rates of those with diverger, converger, and assimilator styles were all about 80%.

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Kolb also, however, provides typology of learning styles--the converger, diverger, assimilator, and accommodator--and suggests that individuals have a preference for one over the others.

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if a genotype had less success than another in converting available energy into its own embodiment, but nevertheless outreproduced the other, its kind would be more represented in the next generation than the more efficient energy assimilator. For this reason the ancient stability/viability component of selection could actually even be nullified--for example, if resources became unlimited (as in the boom phase of a boom-and-bust cycle)--reducing fitness just to its fertility component.

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You may find that Kolb's thinking/feeling dimension (Lawson and Johnson) rings truer in your experience than his categories of assimilator and converger (Terrell).

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These categories are similar to Kolb's combination of the learning style dimensions of concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation into four respective quadrants: converger, assimilator, accommodator, and diverger.

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"We could have easily built that technology ourselves, taking our Assimilator technology and putting it in a box," he said.

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In fact, Pallet shows that Milk Train represents a watershed in Williams's dramaturgy, as Williams, always a rapid assimilator of influences, absorbed the work of Yukio Mishima, substantially abandoning a traditionally Western neorealistic approach for more international techniques.

Tennessee Williams. The Undiscovered Country: the Later Plays of Tennessee Williams

But just as he was a devourer and assimilator of Andalusia's past, and Granada's past in particular, he had a thirst for the future of literature--his friendships with Pablo Neruda and, above all, to Salvador Dali were emblematic--each successive book of Lorca was a new beginning, a break with the most recent innovation.

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