assimilation (n.)

  1. the state of being assimilated; people of different backgrounds come to see themselves as part of a larger national family

  2. the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another

    [ Syn: absorption ]

  3. the process of absorbing nutrients into the body after digestion

    [ Syn: absorption ]

  4. a linguistic process by which a sound becomes similar to an adjacent sound

  5. the process of assimilating new ideas into an existing cognitive structure

    [ Syn: acculturation ]

  6. in the theories of Jean Piaget: the application of a general schema to a particular instance

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
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