dissimilation
Americannoun
-
the act of making or becoming unlike.
-
Phonetics. the process by which a speech sound becomes different from or less like a neighboring sound, as pilgrim from Latin peregrīnus and purple from Old English purpure or disappears entirely because of a like sound in another syllable, as in the pronunciation for governor.
-
Biology. catabolism.
noun
-
the act or an instance of making dissimilar
-
phonetics the alteration or omission of a consonant as a result of being dissimilated
-
biology a less common word for catabolism
Etymology
Origin of dissimilation
First recorded in 1820–30; dis- 1 + (as)similation
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The result has been widespread public furor over crime, cultural dissimilation and fears of terrorism.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2016
There is also separation and aggregation, assimilation and dissimilation, increase, diminution, equalization, a passage from motion to rest, and from rest to motion in the one and many.
From Parmenides by Benjamin Jowett
Old Fr. livel became by dissimilation nivel, now niveau.
From The Romance of Words (4th ed.) by Ernest Weekley
Like the staircase effect, this contravenes the commonly accepted theory of the dissimilation of tissue by stimulus, and the consequent depression of response.
From Response in the Living and Non-Living by Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose
The same group of names is affected by dissimilation, i.e. the instinct to avoid the recurrence of the same sound.
From The Romance of Names by Ernest Weekley
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
