According to www.dictionary.com to WordNet:
noun
1. the state of being assimiliated; people of different backgrounds come to see themselves as part of a larger national family.
2. the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another.
3. the process of absorbing nutrients into the body after digestion.
4. a linguistic process by which a sound becomes similar to an adjacent sound.
5. the process of assimilating new ideas into an existing cognitive structure.
