dissimilation

1. 1.

   a linguistic process by which one of two similar sounds in a word becomes less like the other

   “the Old French MARBRE became the English MARBLE by dissimilation”

   Broaderlinguistic process
2. 2.

   breakdown in living organisms of more complex substances into simpler ones together with release of energy

   Synonymscatabolismkatabolismdestructive metabolism

   Broaderorganic process

   Part ofmetabolism

Other forms of dissimilation

plural

dissimilations·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about dissimilation

What does dissimilation mean?

dissimilation means "a linguistic process by which one of two similar sounds in a word becomes less like the other". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in dissimilation?

dissimilation has 6 syllables: dis-si-mi-la-ti-on. The stress falls on "ti".

What is another word for dissimilation?

Close synonyms include catabolism, katabolism, destructive metabolism. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is dissimilation a common word?

dissimilation is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.