ascribe

[uh-skrahyb]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR ascribe ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object), as·cribed, as·crib·ing.

to credit or assign, as to a cause or source; attribute; impute: The alphabet is usually ascribed to the Phoenicians.

to attribute or think of as belonging, as a quality or characteristic: They ascribed courage to me for something I did out of sheer panic.

Nearby words

Origin of ascribe

1400–50; late Middle English < Latin ascrībere, equivalent to a- a-⁵ + scrībere to scribe²; replacing Middle English ascrive < Middle French. See shrive

Related formsa·scrib·a·ble, adjectiveun·as·cribed, adjective

Can be confusedascribe proscribe subscribe

Synonym study

1. See attribute.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for ascribable

They are not ascribable to the purely intellectual movement alone, though it is no doubt an essential factor.
The English Utilitarians, Volume I.|Leslie Stephen
Perhaps to some extent this is ascribable to the influence of the genius loci.
A Civil Servant in Burma|Herbert Thirkel White
Who could say whether his silence were ascribable to the absence of danger, or to his own absence?
Wieland; or The Transformation|Charles Brockden Brown
Of the increased deaths, 700,000 were ascribable to insufficient nourishment, mainly in the last two years of war.
The New Germany|George Young

That they were effective in action was ascribable to a great extent to the admirable acting of Miss Terry.
Ellen Terry and Her Sisters|T. Edgar Pemberton

British Dictionary definitions for ascribable

ascribe

verb (tr)

to credit or assign, as to a particular origin or periodto ascribe parts of a play to Shakespeare

to attribute as a quality; consider as belonging toto ascribe beauty to youth

Derived Formsascribable, adjective

Word Origin for ascribe

C15: from Latin ascrībere to enrol, from ad in addition + scrībere to write

usage

Ascribe is sometimes wrongly used where subscribe is meant: I do not subscribe (not ascribe) to this view

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for ascribable

ascribable

adj.

1670s, from ascribe + -able. Related: Ascribably; ascribability.

ascribe

mid-14c., ascrive, from Old French ascrivre "to inscribe; attribute, impute," from Latin ascribere "to write in, to add to in a writing," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + scribere "to write" (see script (n.)). Spelling restored by 16c. Related: Ascribed; ascribing.

ascribe

verb (used with object), as·cribed, as·crib·ing.

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Nearby words

Origin of ascribe

Synonym study

Examples from the Web for ascribable

ascribe

verb (tr)

Word Origin for ascribe

usage

ascribable

ascribe