Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To take for granted; suppose.
  • intransitive verb To take upon oneself (a duty or obligation).
  • intransitive verb To undertake the duties of (an office).
  • intransitive verb To take on (an appearance, role, or form, for example); adopt.
  • intransitive verb To pretend to have; feign.
  • intransitive verb To take over without justification; seize.
  • intransitive verb To clothe oneself in; don.
  • intransitive verb To take up or receive into heaven.
  • intransitive verb To make a supposition; suppose or believe.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To take into relation or association; adopt; take in; admit: as, “Enoch and Elias were assumed up into heaven,” Abp. Abbot. See assumption, 5.
  • To take upon one's self; undertake: as, to assume the responsibility of a proceeding; to assume office; to assume an obligation.
  • To take or put on one's self; invest one's self with: as, to assume the garb of a mendicant, or the figure of an animal; to assume a severe aspect; “to assume man's nature,”
  • To apply to one's self; appropriate.
  • To take for granted or without proof; suppose as a fact; postulate: as, to assume a principle in reasoning.
  • To take fictitiously; pretend to possess; take in appearance: as, to assume the garb of humility.
  • To claim.
  • Synonyms To affect, feign, counterfeit.
  • To be arrogant; claim more than is due; presume.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To be arrogant or pretentious; to claim more than is due.
  • intransitive verb (Law) To undertake, as by a promise.
  • transitive verb To take to or upon one's self; to take formally and demonstratively; sometimes, to appropriate or take unjustly.
  • transitive verb To take for granted, or without proof; to suppose as a fact; to suppose or take arbitrarily or tentatively.
  • transitive verb To pretend to possess; to take in appearance.
  • transitive verb To receive or adopt.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To authenticate by means of belief; to surmise; to suppose to be true, especially without proof.
  • verb To take on a position, duty or form.
  • verb To adopt an idea or cause.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb occupy or take on
  • verb take to be the case or to be true; accept without verification or proof
  • verb take on as one's own the expenses or debts of another person
  • verb take on titles, offices, duties, responsibilities
  • verb make a pretence of
  • verb take up someone's soul into heaven
  • verb take on a certain form, attribute, or aspect
  • verb put clothing on one's body
  • verb seize and take control without authority and possibly with force; take as one's right or possession

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English assumen, from Latin assūmere : ad-, ad- + sūmere, to take; see em- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word assume.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Doing this, more often than not, makes an ass out of (yo)u and me.

    October 13, 2007

  • Unless you can't spell. Then it makes an ass out of oom.

    October 13, 2007

  • Surely assuming makes an ass out of u and ming?

    October 13, 2007

  • But oom is already one, for words like gloom and room and bloom.

    October 13, 2007

  • It's already what? An ass? How can it be an ass if it doesn't have "ass" in it?

    Oh God. I'm turning into chained_bear. ;->

    October 13, 2007

  • By ass I mean "tail end of something, in this case, words." Nevermind. Bad joke. *shame*

    I do feel sorry for Ming, though, whoever that is.

    October 13, 2007

  • Oom is already an ass...? And how, pray, does that involve me?

    WAIT! Don't answer that.

    October 13, 2007

  • "How can it be an ass if it doesn't have "ass" in it?"

    Nice koan.

    October 13, 2007

  • OH! I get it now. Sorry, uselessness--a little slow on the uptake. :-)

    C_b, click the link on your name down there. You'll get it. And if you don't, never mind.

    Npydyuan--thanks. It was an accident, though.

    October 13, 2007

  • Oh. Well. *stares at ceiling, hums*

    October 13, 2007

  • I'm assuming you didn't get towed from home.

    September 1, 2009