What does dissimilate mean?
Dissimilate is a verb used chiefly in linguistics to describe a process by which one of two similar sounds in a word changes so that it becomes less like the other. Where assimilation pushes neighbouring sounds toward each other, dissimilation pulls them apart, often making words easier to pronounce. A classic example occurs in some Romance languages, where a sequence of two identical liquids is broken up by changing one of them into a different consonant. The term can also be used more generally to mean simply making or becoming unlike, though such figurative uses are rare. Derived forms include the noun dissimilation and the adjective dissimilative. Because the word sits close to both assimilate and the unrelated dissimulate — meaning to conceal one's true feelings — writers should take care to choose the right term. Dissimilate remains a technical vocabulary item, valuable mainly to students of phonetics, phonology, and language history.
verbTo make or become different or unlike something else; in linguistics, to undergo or cause a process by which one of two similar sounds in a word changes to become less like the other.
- (Linguistics, transitive or intransitive) To undergo, cause, or describe a sound change in which one of two similar sounds in a word becomes less similar to the other.
- (General, rare) To make or become different or unlike; to cease being similar to something.
"In the history of English, the second 'l' in 'marble' did not dissimilate from the first, though in some dialects it shifted to an 'r'."
"In many languages, nasal consonants tend to dissimilate when two of them would otherwise appear too close together."
"Over centuries of use, the pronunciation of the word gradually dissimilated from that of its Latin source."
The word for making sounds LESS alike is itself almost identical to its opposite, assimilate — and to its lookalike dissimulate, which means something else entirely.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of dissimilate
Dissimilate derives from the Latin verb dissimilare, formed from dis- ('apart') plus similis ('like, similar'), the same root that gives English similar, simile, simulate, and assimilate. The word entered English in the nineteenth century as linguists formalized the terminology of sound change alongside its counterpart assimilate. Its closest relatives are dissimilation, the noun naming the process itself, and assimilate, which shares the Latin root but takes the opposing prefix ad-.
Related word forms
How dissimilate is actually used
This is a technical term used almost exclusively in linguistics and philology, particularly in historical and descriptive phonology. It is rarely encountered in everyday speech or writing. In linguistics it most often appears in discussions of sound change, where dissimilation is the mirror image of assimilation. Outside this specialist context, any broader figurative use ('to become unlike') is uncommon and may strike readers as unusual.
Easily confused with dissimilate
'Dissimulate' means to hide or conceal one's true feelings under a false appearance, while 'dissimilate' means to make or become unlike something else, especially as a sound change.