sterilize

American  

[ster-uh-lahyz] / ˈstɛr əˌlaɪz /

especially British, sterilise

verb (used with object)

• sterilizes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• sterilized,
  past participle,  past
• sterilizing
  present participle

1. to destroy microorganisms in or on, usually by bringing to a high temperature with steam, dry heat, or boiling liquid.

2. to destroy the ability of (a person or animal) to reproduce by removing the sexual organs or inhibiting their functions.

3. to make (land) barren or unproductive.

4. Informal. to delete or remove anything comprising or damaging from.

   to sterilize a government document before releasing it to the press.

5. Informal. to isolate or completely protect from unwanted, unauthorized, or unwholesome activities, attitudes, influences, etc..

   You can't sterilize children against violence.

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sterilize British  

/ ˈstɛrɪˌlaɪz /

verb

1. (tr) to render sterile; make infertile or barren

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• sterilizability
  noun
• sterilizer
  noun
• presterilize
  verb (used with object)
• resterilize
  verb (used with object)
• self-sterilized
  adjective
• sterilizable
  adjective
• unsterilized
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• sterilizing
  present
• sterilized
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• sterilize
  simple
• sterilizes
  simple
• have sterilized
  perfect
• has sterilized
  perfect
• am sterilizing
  progressive
• are sterilizing
  progressive
• is sterilizing
  progressive
• have been sterilizing
  perfect progressive
• has been sterilizing
  perfect progressive

Past

• sterilized
  simple
• had sterilized
  perfect
• was sterilizing
  progressive
• were sterilizing
  progressive
• had been sterilizing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will sterilize
  simple
• will have sterilized
  perfect
• will be sterilizing
  progressive
• will have been sterilizing
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of sterilize

First recorded in 1685–95; sterile + -ize

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Explanation

When you sterilize something, you make it completely clean and free from any contaminant. It's important to sterilize tools, hands, and furniture in hospitals so germs don't get spread between patients. People who make their own jam and pickles need to sterilize the jars first, and when you feed a tiny baby it's important to sterilize the bottles. Whenever you need to make sure something is as clean as possible, you should sterilize it. The earliest meaning of sterilize is still in use, too: to "make infertile," or to make it impossible for an organism to reproduce or have a baby.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sterilize sterilizes sterilized sterilizing

We press that mash, sterilize it by heating, bottle it and ship it out.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026

San Bernardino County officials approved new deals in April with a local nonprofit to help sterilize and relocate many of the pint-size equines to sanctuaries.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2025

I told her to try to sterilize the water, and she responded that she does not have enough cooking gas and cannot heat water more than once a day.

From Slate ● Oct. 22, 2024

The simplest way to sterilize the bugs is to use radiation.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2024

Once she’d sterilized the cubicle, she lit a Bunsen burner and used its flame to sterilize test tubes and a used scalpel blade, since the Gey lab couldn’t afford new ones for each sample.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

He noted that one machine his team is working on — a smart steamer that sterilizes soil — can be used near schools, where people don’t want “nasty chemical stuff.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2024

"It wipes out the bacteria -- sterilizes the culture with a single dose of light. And then when you look at what occurs with electron microscopy, you see the collapse of the chromosome."

From Science Daily ● Nov. 2, 2023

Circulating at 380 degrees, this steam not only heats the buildings, saving the cost of bulky on-site boilers, but also sterilizes the hospitals’ surgical instruments.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 14, 2019

This transformation sterilizes the plant, while attracting the sap-sucking insects that carry the bacteria to new hosts.

From Scientific American ● Apr. 9, 2014

It is certainly established that sunlight sterilizes water, for example, and the quartz mercury-lamp is in daily use for this purpose on a practicable scale.

From Artificial Light Its Influence upon Civilization by Matthew Luckiesh

I sterilized them, perfect for making yogurt in, to give to friends with my homemade granola.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

That means the fish aren’t sterilized by cooking before they are packaged and sealed.

From Salon ● May 28, 2026

Another group of eight aging mice served as controls and received sterilized fecal material instead.

From Science Daily ● May 9, 2026

In 2024, the district launched its pilot, releasing nearly 600,000 sterilized males in two Sunland-Tujunga neighborhoods over about five months.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2026

Beginning in August 1954, screw-worms reared and sterilized in an Agriculture Department laboratory in Florida were flown to Curasao and released from airplanes at the rate of about 400 per square mile per week.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

The most effective strategy involved sterilizing about 22% of adult female koalas each year in areas with the highest population densities rather than applying the approach across the entire region.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 8, 2026

She’s grateful that she had already secured a second job sterilizing medical equipment for 3,000 pesos a month at a nearby clinic.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026

Because when doctors and dentists practiced universal precautions—like wearing gloves and properly sterilizing their equipment—there was almost no risk of HIV transmission.

From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2025

But with limited budgets and climate change threatening to make the pest situation worse, researchers are studying another yet-to-be-proven approach: sterilizing almost a million moths a day with radiation and dropping them out of planes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2024

And when I say cleaning out, I mean practically sterilizing the place.

From "Boy: Tales of a Childhood" by Roald Dahl

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