monetize

American  

[mon-i-tahyz, muhn-] / ˈmɒn ɪˌtaɪz, ˈmʌn- /

especially British, monetise

verb (used with object)

monetized, monetizing

1. to legalize as money.

2. to coin into money.

   to monetize gold.

3. to give the character of money to.

4. Economics. to convert (a debt, especially the national debt) into currency, especially by issuing government securities or notes.

5. to make a profit or derive income from.

   Lots of people download the game, but the start-up hasn’t been able to monetize the add-on features.

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monetize British  

/ ˈmʌnɪˌtaɪz /

verb

1. to establish as the legal tender of a country

2. to give a legal value to (a coin)

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Other Word Forms

• monetization
  noun

Etymology

Origin of monetize

First recorded in 1875–80; from Latin monēt(a) money + -ize

Explanation

To monetize is to make money. If you write a popular blog, figure out how to monetize it so you don’t work for free. To monetize also means to establish a country's legal tender, as in to literally make money. The word money hides in monetize because it’s all about money. Establishing a new currency, or printing money, is what happens when a country monetizes, like when the European Union decided to monetize the Euro as its new currency. This verb is sometimes used to mean "exchange for money.” These days, monetize often refers to figuring out a way to make money from a website or app.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

monetize monetized monetizing

The new tool is Meta’s latest attempt to monetize its massive AI investments, which are expected to top $130 billion this year.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026

The audience that allowed them to monetize their creations in the first place had now led to creative paralysis.

From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026

“They know perfectly how to monetize their work.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

As a result, the company now has an unrivaled distribution network to monetize on-device AI features down the road.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026

Moving beyond capacity assumptions, Nowak believes the “swing factor” determining the company’s growth will come down to how the company can monetize each watt of compute.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 17, 2026

Muse Spark 1.1 was the company’s first AI model with competitive agentic coding capabilities and the first to be monetized through an API.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026

The consensus view broadly has been that the Google parent’s search and cloud businesses have successfully monetized AI, making it a front-runner in the race for AI dominance.

From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026

It is curated, ranked, monetized and constantly optimized using first-party data that tracks what people watch, when they watch it and how they respond to ads.

From Salon ● Jun. 21, 2026

Another groomfluencer, Ethan Lounsbury, 27, was stunned by how quickly he monetized his social media posts directed at husbands-to-be.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026

We were just coming into an age where clicks were being measured and monetized.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

Apple is shifting its focus toward monetizing its expanding installed base in markets including India, Brazil and Mexico through greater adoption of higher-priced Pro-series models, he says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

The company is also better monetizing its cloud, search and subscription businesses, as well as other parts of the business, they add.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

The financing surprised investors because it came before the company reported second-quarter earnings, when plans for borrowing, AI capital expenditures and monetizing tend to be updated.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026

If Meta slows down capex and starts monetizing it, we see significant upside to revenue and cash flow.”

From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026

His arrival at Adobe came at the dawn of software-as-a service, which at the time was a revolutionary shift toward monetizing software via subscription business models.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 9, 2026