assume

From Latin assūmō (“accept, take”), from ad- (“to, towards, at”) + sūmō (“take up, assume”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈsjuːm/

• Audio (UK)

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• Audio (US)

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• (US, Canada) (yod dropping) IPA^(key): /əˈsum/
• (yod coalescence) IPA^(key): /əˈʃuːm/
• (Nigeria) IPA^(key): /əˈzuːm/
• Rhymes: -uːm

assume (third-person singular simple present assumes, present participle assuming, simple past and past participle assumed)

1. To authenticate by means of belief; to surmise; to suppose to be true, especially without proof

   We assume that, as her parents were dentists, she knows quite a bit about dentistry.

   • 2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:

     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.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:assume.
2. To take on a position, duty or form

   Mr. Jones will assume the position of a lifeguard until a proper replacement is found.

   • 1715–1720, Homer, [Alexander] Pope, transl., “Book I”, in The Iliad of Homer, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:

     Trembling they stand while Jove assumes the throne.

   • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 96:

     His unruly hair was slicked down with water, and as Jessamy introduced him to Miss Brindle his face assumed a cherubic innocence which would immediately have aroused the suspicions of anyone who knew him.

   • 2012 August 5, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “I Love Lisa” (season 4, episode 15; originally aired 02/11/1993)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     So while Ralph generally seems to inhabit a different, more glorious and joyful universe than everyone else here his yearning and heartbreak are eminently relateable. Ralph sometimes appears to be a magically demented sprite who has assumed the form of a boy, but he’s never been more poignantly, nakedly, movingly human than he is here.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:assume.
3. To adopt a feigned quality or manner; to claim without right; to arrogate

   He assumed an air of indifference

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:

     Assume a virtue, if you have it not.

   • a. 1809,Beilby Porteus, sermon

     ambition assuming the mask of religion.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:assume.
4. To receive, adopt (a person)
   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     The sixth was a young knight of lesser renown and lower rank, assumed into that honorable company.

5. To adopt (an idea or cause)

• See also Thesaurus:suppose

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “assume”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• Seamus, amuses

• IPA^(key): /a.sym/

• Audio

  (file)

assume

1. inflection of assumer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative
   2. first-person singular present subjunctive
   3. second-person singular imperative

• amuses, amusés, massue, muasse, suâmes, usâmes

assume

1. third-person singular present indicative of assumere

assūme

1. second-person singular present active imperative of assūmō

assume

1. inflection of assumir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative