assimilation.

1. The incorporation of people or groups into a social or cultural setting through adoption of its practices or patterns.

2. The incorporation of new information into an existing understanding or framework.

3. A change by which a speech sound becomes more like a nearby sound.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• cultural assimilation
• social assimilation

On the page

The policy favored cultural assimilation rather than recognition of several continuing traditions.

Social assimilation was measured through specified practices rather than assumed from language alone.

Usage notes

Primary category: economics / business / social science. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: social explanation, distributional analysis, population description, concept distinction. Disciplines: social science, economics, public policy. Commonness: moderately common.