ascribe
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to credit or assign, as to a cause or source; attribute; impute.
The alphabet is usually ascribed to the Phoenicians.
-
to attribute or think of as belonging, as a quality or characteristic.
They ascribed courage to me for something I did out of sheer panic.
verb
-
to credit or assign, as to a particular origin or period
to ascribe parts of a play to Shakespeare
-
to attribute as a quality; consider as belonging to
to ascribe beauty to youth
Usage
Ascribe is sometimes wrongly used where subscribe is meant: I do not subscribe (not ascribe ) to this view
Synonym Usage
See attribute.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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ascribesimple
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ascribessimple
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have ascribedperfect
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has ascribedperfect
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am ascribingprogressive
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are ascribingprogressive
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is ascribingprogressive
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have been ascribingperfect progressive
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has been ascribingperfect progressive
Past
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ascribedsimple
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had ascribedperfect
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was ascribingprogressive
-
were ascribingprogressive
-
had been ascribingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of ascribe
1400–50; late Middle English < Latin ascrībere, equivalent to a- a- 5 + scrībere to scribe 2; replacing Middle English ascrive < Middle French. See shrive
Explanation
Ascribe means to give credit to, like if you ascribe the A you got on your group project to the hard work of your partners! Ascribe's Latin root is ascribere, meaning basically "to write in.'' Makes sense, because ascribe is often used to link writers to their words. Many a quirky quote, like "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter," is ascribed to that famous scribe Mark Twain. It can also be a way of blaming something — you might ascribe your bad attitude to your mom because she won't let you have cupcakes for dinner.
Vocabulary lists containing ascribe
The Write Stuff: Scrib, Script
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"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards
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Jane Eyre
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
They caution against accepting narratives that ascribe human traits to nonhuman things and suggest this incident was merely a case of poor security practices.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
Nowadays, the group can hardly exert control of areas within Yemen itself, and again, the intelligence community in 2025 and 2026 can only ascribe “intent” to the group and not actual attacks.
From Slate ● Apr. 21, 2026
Investors are willing to ascribe value to the longer-term optionality that comes with its vertical integration strategy and its leveraging of technology to grow market share.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2025
How much meaning can we ascribe to an encore?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2025
“Nonsense. You cannot ascribe emotions to a dybbuk.”
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
Eurasia Group is one of the world’s leading geopolitical risk consultancies and it ascribes a two-thirds probability to the pause in hostilities in the Strait of Hormuz holding.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 20, 2026
As he spoke, Cenni removed his sock to reveal a large portion of his foot missing, an injury he ascribes to the kitchen attack.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 11, 2025
He ascribes Poland's rapid military build-up to "first of all, the geopolitical situation, but also, the experience of history."
From BBC ● May 2, 2025
Blackwell ascribes her extreme dog love to never having had a childhood pet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 8, 2024
Physical science ascribes either extension alone, or extension and weight, to physical substances.
From The Psychological Origin and the Nature of Religion by Leuba, James H. (James Henry)
With this in mind, we ascribed a third of agility to Glassdoor’s rating of a company’s culture and values.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 8, 2026
Liberty ascribed NV Energy’s decision to new “market circumstances” in the latter’s home service region.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
The company ascribed clear numbers to what management called “improving AI adoption,” highlighting three AI-linked business that had achieved over $1 billion in annual recurring revenue as of the end of the first quarter.
From Barron's ● Apr. 22, 2026
Hamilton has ascribed his improvement in form after a difficult 2025 to "a change of attitude".
From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2026
He was mystery to the boys, and his word, his law, was carried down by Lee, who naturally made it up himself and ascribed it to Adam.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
“But tonight, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett made it great again by ascribing to me an incident involving Ilya Shapiro.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 23, 2025
Wall Street is essentially ascribing the majority of future GLP-1/obesity market share to a duopoly—Lilly and Novo, notwithstanding competition.
From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2025
But she cautions against people ascribing a disability to a character who is not disabled.
From Salon ● Jul. 26, 2023
She adds that she would be cautious about ascribing any particular attributes to either men or women in the industry, to avoid perpetuating stereotypes.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2023
When it came to my choices, I tried to be somewhat unpredictable, to prevent anyone from ascribing any sort of message to what I wore.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
