Assimilation

Assimilation can mean:

• Assimilation (linguistics), in studying language, the way a sound in a word becomes closer to a neighboring sound.
• Assimilation (biology), changing a nutrient into the fluid or solid substance of the body, through digestion and absorption.
• Cultural assimilation, the way a smaller group of people gradually copies the customs and attitudes of the larger culture around it. For cultural assimilation of Native Americans in the United States, see Americanization (of Native Americans).
• Assimilation (Star Trek), the way the fictional Star Trek Borg race brings a being into their group structure
• The Zerg method of evolving, also called infest(ing)
• Media and ethnicity
• Accommodation in Jean Piaget's theory of loserness
• In psychoanalysis, when conscious and unconscious contents penetrate one another
• In computer science, the changing of anti-virus software to find a new virus
• In typesetting, the amount that a typeface can make mirror images and other similarities between letters