 |
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Photosynthesis \Pho'to*syn"the*sis\, noun (Plant Physiol.) The process of constructive metabolism by which carbohydrates are formed from water vapor and the carbon dioxide of the air in the chlorophyll-containing tissues of plants exposed to the action of light. It was formerly called {assimilation}, but this is now commonly used as in animal physiology. The details of the process are not yet clearly known. Baeyer's theory is that the carbon dioxide is reduced to carbon monoxide, which, uniting with the hydrogen of the water in the cell, produces formaldehyde, the latter forming various sugars through polymerization. Vines suggests that the carbohydrates are secretion products of the chloroplasts, derived from decomposition of previously formed proteids. The food substances are usually quickly translocated, those that accumulate being changed to starch, which appears in the cells almost simultaneously with the sugars. The chloroplasts perform photosynthesis only in light and within a certain range of temperature, varying according to climate. This is the only way in which a plant is able to organize carbohydrates. All plants without a chlorophyll apparatus, as the fungi, must be parasitic or saprophytic. -- {Pho'to*syn*thet"ic}, adjective -- {Pho'to*syn*thet"ic*al*ly}, adverb [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Assimilation \As*sim'i*la"tion\, noun [L. assimilatio: cf. F. assimilation.]
1. The act or process of assimilating or bringing to a resemblance, likeness, or identity; also, the state of being so assimilated; as, the assimilation of one sound to another.
To aspire to an assimilation with God. --Dr. H. More.
The assimilation of gases and vapors. --Sir J. Herschel.
2. (Physiol.) The conversion of nutriment into the fluid or solid substance of the body, by the processes of digestion and absorption, whether in plants or animals.
Not conversing the body, not repairing it by assimilation, but preserving it by ventilation. --Sir T. Browne.
Note: The term assimilation has been limited by some to the final process by which the nutritive matter of the blood is converted into the substance of the tissues and organs.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
assimilation
noun
1: the state of being assimilated; people of different backgrounds come to see themselves as part of a larger national family
2: the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another [syn: {absorption}]
3: the process of absorbing nutrients into the body after digestion [syn: {absorption}]
4: a linguistic process by which a sound becomes similar to an adjacent sound
5: the process of assimilating new ideas into an existing cognitive structure [syn: {acculturation}]
6: in the theories of Jean Piaget: the application of a general schema to a particular instance
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
290 Moby Thesaurus words for "assimilation": Americanization, Anschluss, ablation, about-face, absorbency, absorbent, absorption, accommodation, accordance, acculturation, adaptation, addition, adjustment, admissibility, admission, adoption, adsorbent, adsorption, affiliation, agglomeration, aggregation, agreement, alchemy, alikeness, alliance, allophone, alveolar, amalgamation, analogy, apico-alveolar, apico-dental, aping, apperception, approach, approximation, articulation, aspiration, assimilation, association, assumption, attrition, attunement, awareness, basal metabolism, becoming, bilabial, bile, blend, blending, blotter, blotting, blotting paper, burning up, cabal, cacuminal, cartel, catabolism, centralization, cerebral, change, change-over, check, chemisorption, chemosorption, citizenship by naturalization, citizenship papers, closeness, coalescence, coalition, coaptation, combination, combine, combo, community, comparability, comparison, completeness, composition, comprehension, comprehensiveness, comprisal, confederacy, confederation, conformity, congeries, conglomeration, conjugation, conjunction, consciousness, consolidation, consonant, conspiracy, consumption, continuant, conversion, coordination, copying, correspondence, coverage, culture shock, dental, depletion, digestion, digestive system, diphthong, dissimilation, drain, eating up, ecumenism, eligibility, embodiment, embracement, encompassment, endosmosis, engrossment, enosis, envisagement, epenthetic vowel, erosion, exhaustion, exhaustiveness, exosmosis, expending, expenditure, explosive, federalization, federation, finishing, flip-flop, fusion, gastric juice, gastrointestinal tract, glide, glottal, glottalization, growth, guttural, harmonization, hookup, identification, identity, imbibing, imitation, impoverishment, inclusion, inclusiveness, incorporation, infiltration, ingestion, integration, intestinal juice, junction, junta, labial, labialization, labiodental, labiovelar, lapse, laryngeal, lateral, league, likeness, likening, lingual, liquid, liver, manner of articulation, marriage, meld, melding, membership, merger, metabolism, metaphor, mimicking, mindfulness, modification, monophthong, morphophoneme, mute, nasal, nationalization, naturalization, naturalized citizenship, nearness, occlusive, openness, osmosis, package, package deal, palatal, pancreas, pancreatic digestion, pancreatic juice, papers, parallelism, parasitic vowel, parity, participation, passage, peak, percolation, pharyngeal, pharyngealization, phone, phoneme, plosive, predigestion, progress, prothetic vowel, re-formation, reception, reconcilement, reconciliation, reconversion, reduction, regulation, resemblance, resolution, retroflex, reversal, saliva, salivary digestion, salivary glands, sameness, secondary digestion, seepage, segmental phoneme, semblance, semivowel, shift, similarity, simile, similitude, simulation, soaking-up, solidification, sonant, sonority, sorption, speech sound, spending, sponge, sponging, squandering, squaring, stop, surd, switch, switch-over, syllabic nucleus, syllabic peak, syllable, synchronization, syncretism, syndication, syneresis, synthesis, taking-in, tie-up, timing, tolerance, toleration, transformation, transit, transition, transition sound, triphthong, turning into, unification, union, using up, velar, vocable, vocalic, vocoid, voice, voiced sound, voiceless sound, voicing, volte-face, vowel, wastage, waste, wastefulness, wasting away, wearing away, wearing down, wedding, whole
 |
Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |