assume
/əˈsjuːm/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.57 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To authenticate by means of belief; to surmise; to suppose to be true, especially without proof.
Example Sentences
- "We assume that, as her parents were dentists, she knows quite a bit about dentistry."
- "Levelling of ME /irC/ and /urC/, which Orton assumes for the whole of the North (S. Durham §§411-13), has not taken place in Dent and S.We, where ME /urC/ remains (4:46)."
- "Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet. Perhaps we assume that our name, address and search preferences will be viewed by some unseen pair of corporate eyes, probably not human, and don't mind that much."
- "Mr. Jones will assume the position of a lifeguard until a proper replacement is found."
- "Trembling they stand while Jove assumes the throne."
- "Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability: […] it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off."
Etymology
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *h₁em-, assūmō
Inflected Forms
assumes (present, singular)
assuming (participle, present)
assumed (participle, past)
assumed (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
assumed (first person, past)
assumest (archaic, present)
assumed (past, second person)
assumedst (archaic, past)
assumeth (archaic, present)
assumed (past, singular)