noun

assimilation

uh-sim-uh-LAY-shun/əˌsɪməˈleɪʃn/

The integration of something into an existing system.

Cooking together supports the newcomers' assimilation into the established community.

Diverse adult newcomers and longtime residents jointly cook a shared community meal, mutual participation with individual clothing preserved.

Etymology

asLatinto, toward

+similLatinmake similar

+ationLatinaction or process

The underlying idea is a process of making alike. First applied in English to the body's use of nourishment, assimilation later extended figuratively to absorption into a culture or system.

In context

History Scope4:48

assimilation. What this meant is that a person was forced to abandon their culture, their customs, their whole way of life and replace it with the Mongol’s culture, customs, and way of life.

The Rise and Fall of the Mongol Empire

More examples

Cultural assimilation can occur over several generations.
Digestion and assimilation allow nutrients to become part of living tissue.
Sound assimilation makes one consonant more like its neighbor.

Forms

assimilate verb — To incorporate something into an existing whole.

Similar words

absorption: Emphasizes intake rather than incorporation into a larger system.
integration: May preserve distinctions that assimilation tends to reduce.