obliterative assimilation

noun

The assimilation of new knowledge that causes changes to one's existing mental framework for organizing that knowledge.

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Meanings

nounobliterative assimilation (uncountable)
  1. uncountableThe assimilation of new knowledge that causes changes to one's existing mental framework for organizing that knowledge.

    The forgetting of knowledge or obliterative assimilation may be viewed as the gradual and spontaneous dissolution of new ideas from their anchoring ideas.

    1970, Robert Stone Newsom, The Assimilation and Retention of Hierarchically Structured Prose Materials, page 15
    2 more examples

    This so-called obliterative assimilation contains two kinds of subsumption: a derivative subsumption (i.e., a deductive way of deriving subordinated concepts from superordinate concepts) and a correlative subsumption, which includes learning of new concepts.

    2011, Norbert M. Seel, Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning, page 387

    We cannot continue simply to assume a humanistic paternalistic empathy with the suffering of "Others" that Hartman characterises as the "obliterative assimilation of empathy" which quickly becomes self-indulgent.

    2020, Elahe Haschemi Yekani, Familial Feeling, page 274
Cite this entry
APA

obliterative assimilation. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/obliterative%20assimilation

MLA

“obliterative assimilation.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/obliterative%20assimilation. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “obliterative assimilation,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/obliterative%20assimilation.

Source: obliterative assimilation on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.