-ize

(Latin: a suffix; to act in a certain way; to treat in a certain way; to make into; to treat with; to do; to make; to cause)

These word entries are just a small listing of the many words that exist with the -ize endings; so, be aware that there are many more words with this suffix which exist in this lexicon.

Another closely related suffix family with the same meanings, but a different spelling, is located at this -ise unit.

spiritualize (verb), spiritualizes; spiritualized; spiritualizing
1. To purify a person from the corrupting manipulations and temptations of the world: Claude went to church regularly to be spiritualized by the priest who spoke to him and sanctified him for his errors in his life.
2. To be concerned with religious matters: Every evening before going to bed, Jeffrey read in the Bible which quite spiritualized him and gave him a good night's sleep!
3. To relate to a person's spirit: Medical doctors must consider the emotional needs of their patients which spiritualize the lives of their bodies with energy and physical powers.
stabilize (verb), stabilizes; stabilized; stabilizing
To stop changing, increasing, or getting worse: The U.S. government's efforts to stabilize many prices for food products have not been successful and have gone up and down considerably.
sterilize (verb), sterilizes; sterilized; sterilizing
To clean something by getting rid of germs or bacteria: Andrew's dentist always sterilizes his dental instruments after he treats his patients.

Medical facilities are always sterilized for those who need treatment.

stigmatize (verb), stigmatizes; stigmatized; stigmatizing
1. To incriminate or to denounce openly or officially; to discredit as disgraceful: The boys' conduct was stigmatized as totally mean, low, and detestable, and so the principal of the school suspended them for a week.
2. To label someone, or something, as socially unacceptable: Cindy was stigmatized by the people in the little village because she divorced her husband.
subsidize (verb), subsidizes; subsidized; subsidizing
1. To contribute money to somebody or something, especially to give a government grant to a private company, an organization, or a charity to help it to continue to be active: The bill before the government was to end the policy which was subsidizing political parties with the use of tax payers' money.
2. To pay for a part of something or to reduce the cost of something by funding it with money: Because she was only working part time, Trudy was grateful that the city was subsidizing her rent for the first three months.
To support with a monetary contribution or to aid and to promote; such as, a private enterprise with public money.
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summarize (verb), summarizes; summarized; summarizing
1. To give a shortened version of something that has been said or written by stating its main points: Mrs. Clever asked her students to summarize the stories they had finished reading by specifying the main characters and a giving a brief description of the plot.
2. To recapitulate the most important and pertinent facts; to review: The teacher was asked to write the minutes and summarize the relevant and significant points stated in the staff meeting.
symbolize (verb), symbolizes; symbolized; symbolizing
1. To represent something by means of some mark or figure: The sign ahead next to the street symbolizes the right of way for the car to proceed ahead of another car.
2. To express indirectly by an image, a form, a model, or to represent something: For many people, flowers symbolize love and affection for someone.

Mr. Bright told his students to draw a picture for each word in the list to symbolize it!

synthesize (verb), synthesizes; synthesized; synthesizing
To determine what happens when certain elements are combined: Plants synthesize light, carbon dioxide, and water to produce food for all kinds of species, including animals, insects, and even humans during the process of photosynthesis.
temporize (verb), temporizes; temporized; temporizing
1. To follow with the time or occasion, hence to conform to the desires of others; to give in to a circumstance or opinion: While discussing their plans for going on vacation, Linda temporized in that she yielded to the wishes of her husband and children.
2. To act evasively in order to gain time, to avoid an argument, or to postpone a decision: The students in the class decided to temporize so their teacher, Mrs. Jones, wouldn’t be able have them do the vocabulary test on that day.
To avoid doing something at the time.
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terrorize (verb), terrorizes; terrorized; terrorizing
To fill or overwhelm with intimidation or fear: The big boy in school terrorized the smaller, less stronger children on the playground, and said he would beat them up after school.
thermalize (verb), thermalizes, thermalized, thermalizing
1. To modify temperatures so they can be applied when necessary: James thermalizes the heat in his residence during the winter so he and his family can live in warm conditions and not get too cold.
2. To achieve a heat equilibrium with the environment: A substance, as with water, is used to slow down, lessen, or thermalize the velocity of the fast neutrons in a nuclear reactor and therefore intensify the probability of fission, or of the splitting of the massive nucleus into tinier nuclei.
tranquilize (verb), tranquilizes; tranquilized; tranquilizing
1. To calm or to relax someone by the use of a drug before or after a medical procedure: An aesthetic agent was used to tranquilize and to soothe Jane before her tooth was extracted by the dentist.

Fred's doctor tranquilized his son before the tonsil operation.

2. Etymology: from Latin trans-, "over, beyond" + quies, "rest, quiet."
To have a calming effect.
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traumatize (verb), traumatizes; traumatized; traumatizing
1. To cause a person to experience severe emotional shock or distress, often resulting in long-lasting psychological damage: The terrible car accident traumatized and shocked the family immensely.
2. To wound or to injure a tissue: During the surgical operation, Ginny's tissue on her wrist was traumatized by the incision and removal of the ganglion.
3. To subject someone to psychological suffering and distress: The stress of losing his job traumatized Jack and Jill tremendously because they had two small children, debts, and Jill didn't have a job at all! 4. To cause physical injury to someone: When Susan fell on the steps her ankle was traumatized and strained and she had to cool it with ice packs and have it raised on a pillow for quite a while.

The mosquitos bites that traumatized Carol were so painful that she never wanted to go camping again!

unsecularize (verb), unsecularizes; unsecularized; unsecularizing
To separate churches from controlling non-religious organizations: Spiritual groups are then unsecularized from various governments, from local to national ones, based on the belief that they should not be controlled by education, or other public areas of societies.
urbanize (verb), urbanizes; urbanized; urbanizing
1. To make or to become like a city or a town by removing slums or uninhabitable structures and to convert them into attractive living or industrial areas: One of the responsibilities of mayors is to urbanize the residences so people can live more comfortably.
2. To modernize villages into cities: There are times when a small population grows bigger and is urbanized into what is known as a "town" or a "city".