<p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>The act of making or becoming unlike.</li><li>Phonetics: The process by which a speech sound becomes different from or less like a neighboring sound, such as in "pilgrim" from Latin "peregrīnus," or "purple" from Old English "purpure," or disappears entirely due to a neighboring sound, as in the pronunciation of "governor."</li><li>Compare with assimilation.</li><li>Biology: Catabolism.</li></ul>