-ize

Usage

• tantalize

  Something that is tantalizing is desirable and exciting; nevertheless, it may be out of reach, perhaps due to being too expensive.

• bowdlerize

  To bowdlerize a book, play, or other literary work is to remove parts of it that are considered indecent or unsuitable for family reading.

• ostracize

  If someone is ostracized from a group, its members deliberately refuse to talk or listen to them and do not allow them to take part in any of their social activities.

• mesmerize

  If something mesmerizes you, it attracts or holds your interest so much that you do not pay attention to anything else.

• proselytize

  A person who proselytizes tries to draw others to adopt their religion, beliefs, or causes.

• canonize

  When the Catholic Church canonizes someone, they are officially declared a saint; by extension, canonizing a person is to treat them as nearly sacred, whereas canonizing a work of art is to place it in an accepted group of the very best of its kind.

• temporize

  To temporize is to cause a delay in order to gain more time before making a final decision on something.

• patronize

  If people patronize you, they talk or behave in a way that seems friendly; nevertheless, they also show that they think they are more intelligent or important than you are.

• lionize

  When someone is lionized, they are treated as being very important or famous—although they may not deserve to be.

• aggrandize

  To aggrandize someone means to make them seem richer, more powerful, and more important than they really are.

• cauterize

  If a doctor cauterizes a wound, they burn it with a laser or chemical to close it, which helps prevent infection.

• polarization

  Polarization between two groups is a division or separation caused by a difference in opinion or conflicting views.

• fossilized

  A soft material that becomes hardened into stone over time has become fossilized.

• maximize

  When you maximize something, you make it as large as possible.

• authorize

  When someone authorizes someone to do something, they give that person official permission to do it.

• summarize

  To summarize something, such as a report or story, you give only the main points or most important facts about it and leave out the details.

• recognize

  If someone recognizes another person, she knows him when she sees him because she has seen, learned about, or met him at some point in the past.

• realize

  When you realize something, you figure it out or understand it—often after taking some amount of time to do so.

• organize

  When you organize things, you put them in a nice, neat order.