ascribe, attribute, assign, impute, credit mean to lay something to the account of a person or thing. ascribe suggests an inferring or conjecturing of cause, quality, authorship.

ASCRIBE definition: to credit or assign, as to a cause or source; attribute; impute. See examples of ascribe used in a sentence.

If you ascribe something such as a quotation or a work of art to someone, you say that they said it or created it.

1. to credit or assign, as to a particular origin or period: to ascribe parts of a play to Shakespeare. 2. to attribute as a quality; consider as belonging to: to ascribe beauty to youth.

Definition of ascribe verb in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.

There are 11 meanings listed in OED's entry for the verb ascribe, eight of which are labelled obsolete. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

as•cribe /əˈskraɪb/ v. [~ + object + to + object], -cribed, -crib•ing. to believe or consider (something or someone) to be the cause or source of (something): She ascribed her failures to bad luck. to believe …

Jan 27, 2026 · ascribe (third-person singular simple present ascribes, present participle ascribing, simple past and past participle ascribed) (transitive) To attribute (a cause or characteristic) to someone or …

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, …

To credit a particular cause or source: Ascribe means to attribute something to a particular origin, such as crediting a work of art to a specific artist. "He was keen to ascribe his success to years of diligent …