popularize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
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to make popular; make attractive to the general public
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to make or cause to become easily understandable or acceptable
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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unpopularizedadjective
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repopularizeverb (used with object)
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depopularizeverb (used with object)
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popularizationnoun
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semipopularizedadjective
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repopularizationnoun
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popularizernoun
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antipopularizationadjective
Conjugated Forms
Present
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have popularizedperfect
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has popularizedperfect 3rd person singular
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are popularizingprogressive
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has been popularizingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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have been popularizingperfect progressive
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am popularizingprogressive 1st person singular
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is popularizingprogressive 3rd person singular
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popularizingparticiple
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popularizessingular 3rd person
Past
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had popularizedperfect
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were popularizingprogressive plural
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popularizedparticiple
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had been popularizingperfect progressive
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was popularizingprogressive singular
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popularizedsimple
Future
Etymology
Origin of popularize
Vocabulary lists containing popularize
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.
Strategy, formerly known as Microstrategy, helped popularize the concept when it started buying large amounts of bitcoin in 2020.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 20, 2026
Early advertising campaigns helped popularize terms like "litterbug," while today the focus has shifted to "chemical recycling," promoted by industry as a way to break plastics down into their basic building blocks.
From Barron's • Jan. 22, 2026
The intelligence chief’s curt, deadpan delivery has helped popularize the work of the military intelligence agency, known as HUR, with the public using Budanov’s interviews for widely circulated memes on social media mocking Russia.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 2, 2026
Nashville-based food blogger and restaurateur Amanda Frederickson has helped popularize the practice of “fridge foraging” on social media.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 28, 2025
It came about because Kepler wrote one of the first works of science fiction, intended to explain and popularize science.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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.
