ascribe
Americanverb (used with object)
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ascribes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
ascribed,
past participle, past
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ascribing
present participle
-
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
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to credit or assign, as to a particular origin or period
to ascribe parts of a play to Shakespeare
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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
-
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:
And most people contend that plagiarism, cheating and ghostwriting are all cut from the same cloth because they all lack the spark that we ascribe to truly original thinking and writing.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
If you’re a seasoned people-mover rider, luxury is probably the last word you’d ascribe to the vehicle another mid-century promo video called a “monster on wheels.”
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026
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
If we are equal in this sense, then it is impossible to defend policies that ascribe lesser worth to some individuals or groups.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026
He said something happily, again in sounds she could not ascribe meanings to.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
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
What is important is that he is able to convince fanatic followers of the sacred mission he ascribes to himself as well as to them.
From Salon ● Dec. 7, 2023
Man instinctively ascribes volition to whatever powerfully affects him.
From History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne (Vol. 1 of 2) by William Edward Hartpole Lecky
It’s worth noting that Apple recently raised prices on many products, but the company ascribed those increases to higher costs for memory chips, driven up by intense demand from AI firms.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 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
The plaintive observation, ascribed to the early Victorian British Prime Minister Viscount Melbourne about the acerbically self-confident historian Thomas Babington Macaulay, remains the motto of the thoughtfully skeptical man through the ages.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026
Hamilton has ascribed his improvement in form after a difficult 2025 to "a change of attitude".
From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2026
This variant of Holmberg’s Mistake dates back to the Pilgrims themselves, who ascribed the lack of effective native resistance to the will of God.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
“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
I tell you what, Mose, this sure is somebody’s kind of truth, but I wouldn’t be ascribing it to God.”
From "Mississippi Trial, 1955" by Chris Crowe
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.
