Library / English Dictionary

IMPUTE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Attribute or credit to

Example:

People impute great cleverness to cats

Synonyms:

ascribe; assign; attribute; impute

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "impute" is one way to...):

evaluate; judge; pass judgment (form a critical opinion of)

Verb group:

impute (attribute (responsibility or fault) to a cause or source)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "impute"):

impute (attribute (responsibility or fault) to a cause or source)

carnalize; sensualize (ascribe to an origin in sensation)

credit (give someone credit for something)

reattribute (attribute to another source)

anthropomorphise; anthropomorphize (ascribe human features to something)

personate; personify (attribute human qualities to something)

accredit; credit (ascribe an achievement to)

blame; charge (attribute responsibility to)

externalise; externalize; project (regard as objective)

interiorise; interiorize; internalise; internalize (incorporate within oneself; make subjective or personal)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something to somebody
Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

imputation (the attribution to a source or cause)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Attribute (responsibility or fault) to a cause or source

Example:

The teacher imputed the student's failure to his nervousness

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "impute" is one way to...):

ascribe; assign; attribute; impute (attribute or credit to)

Verb group:

ascribe; assign; attribute; impute (attribute or credit to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something to somebody
Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

imputation (a statement attributing something dishonest (especially a criminal offense))

Credits

 Context examples: 

She rejoiced in his being cleared from some part of his imputed guilt;—she was sorry for him;—she wished him happy.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

In an hurried manner he immediately began an inquiry after her health, imputing his visit to a wish of hearing that she were better.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

There was accusation in her manner, and I shrugged my shoulders in token that I was not guilty of the unknown crime imputed to me.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Thus, hope and expectation would be kept alive; none would complain of broken promises, but impute their disappointments wholly to fortune, whose shoulders are broader and stronger than those of a ministry.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Mr. Knightley could not impute to Emma a more relenting heart than she possessed, or a heart more disposed to accept of his.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Day Imputed: Day is imputed.

(Day Imputed, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

It was imputed to very reasonable weariness, and she was thanked and pitied; but she deserved their pity more than she hoped they would ever surmise.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

And do you impute it to either of those?

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

When Robert first sought her acquaintance, and privately visited her in Bartlett's Buildings, it was only with the view imputed to him by his brother.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Think she must of the possible difference to the poor little boy; and yet she only gave herself a saucy conscious smile about it, and found amusement in detecting the real cause of that violent dislike of Mr. Knightley's marrying Jane Fairfax, or any body else, which at the time she had wholly imputed to the amiable solicitude of the sister and the aunt.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)