Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act or process of making or becoming dissimilar.
  • noun Linguistics The process by which one of two similar or identical sounds in a word becomes less like the other, such as the l in English marble (from French marbre).

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act or process of rendering dissimilar or different.
  • noun Specifically— In philology, the change or substitution or a sound to or for another and a different sound when otherwise two similar sounds would come together or very close to each other, as in Latin alienus for aliinus, Italian pelegrino from Latin peregrinus, English number (= German nummer) from Latin numerus, etc.
  • noun In biology, catabolism (which see): opposed to assimilation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of making dissimilar.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act of dissimilating, of making dissimilar.
  • noun phonology A phenomenon whereby similar consonant or vowel sounds in a word become less similar, resulting in a form that is easier for the listener to perceive.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a linguistic process by which one of two similar sounds in a word becomes less like the other
  • noun breakdown in living organisms of more complex substances into simpler ones together with release of energy

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word dissimilation.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.