sanitize
Americanverb (used with object)
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sanitizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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sanitized,
past participle, past
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sanitizing
present participle
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to free from dirt, germs, etc., as by cleaning or sterilizing.
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to make less offensive by eliminating anything unwholesome, objectionable, incriminating, etc..
to sanitize a document before releasing it to the press.
verb
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to make sanitary or hygienic, as by sterilizing
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to omit unpleasant details from (a news report, document, etc) to make it more palatable to the recipients
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sanitizesimple
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sanitizessimple
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have sanitizedperfect
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has sanitizedperfect
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am sanitizingprogressive
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are sanitizingprogressive
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is sanitizingprogressive
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have been sanitizingperfect progressive
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has been sanitizingperfect progressive
Past
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sanitizedsimple
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had sanitizedperfect
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was sanitizingprogressive
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were sanitizingprogressive
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had been sanitizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sanitize
First recorded in 1830–40; sanit(ary) + -ize
Explanation
To sanitize something is to make it extremely clean. After watching you play with your slobbery dog, your fastidious friend might insist that you sanitize your hands before sitting down to dinner. When you clean or sterilize something, particularly for reasons of good health (like not spreading germs), you can say that you sanitize it. You can also use this verb in a figurative way, whenever you "clean" something: "She doesn't want to risk alienating her audience, so she sanitizes her speech to remove anything that might offend them." The Latin root is sanitas, "health."
Vocabulary lists containing sanitize
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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.
See Examples For:
Her concurrence also refuses to sanitize Reconstruction into an abstract legal debate.
From Slate ● Jul. 2, 2026
“I think it was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize accurate reporting,” Alfonsi told the New York Times of her firing.
From Salon ● Jun. 1, 2026
CBS News didn’t renew correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi’s contract, which she said was a move to penalize her for refusing to sanitize reporting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026
But the governing body for more than half a million young athletes must remember nothing will ever sanitize that industry.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2025
Isn’t that what you use to sanitize our toilets?
From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray
“Using a smartphone application sanitizes things and makes it feel like it’s safe and unbiased,” said Ari Sawyer, a border researcher for Human Rights Watch.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2024
When it's time to clean surfaces, "Always have vinegar because it doesn't go bad. It also cleans and sanitizes surfaces if you don't have bleach," he said.
From Salon ● Aug. 7, 2022
It cleans its contaminated sewage with an anaerobic reactor that sanitizes by biological means.
From New York Times ● Dec. 21, 2021
Loop, a two-year-old company that collects and sanitizes reusable containers, said Wednesday it’s expanding after successful trials at groceries in France and Japan.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 22, 2021
RIGHT: Williams, 30, sanitizes her hospital identification card, part of her extensive cleaning routine.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 21, 2020
Today’s musician biopics are almost always overly sanitized stories approved by the artist or their estate.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
They argue that lowering the capacity to around 83,000 and cleaning up the concourses has sanitized it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
Other presidents have also sometimes behaved contrary to democratic ideals, and national memorials often present a more sanitized version of American history.
From Slate ● May 18, 2026
But now and then, something slips through the cracks, something that can’t be sanitized or ignored, no matter how much money or editing goes into it.
From Salon ● Apr. 25, 2026
By the time Sean was found and sanitized, the game was over.
From "In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson" by Bette Bao Lord
Last week, OpenAI said its new Astra model was better at sanitizing its chain of thought, raising fears that future AI models could reason in ways opaque to humans.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
“We see them as intellectualizing or sanitizing radical-right ideas that are then taken up by the parties in power,” said Allchorn, the U.K. extremism expert.
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2026
Years ago, Douthat might have been accused of sanitizing the figures who appear on his podcast or of providing intellectual cover to the legitimately unhinged.
From Slate ● Oct. 7, 2025
Brad Sherman, Judy Chu and Jimmy Gomez said that they were left with more questions than answers — and accused the government of sanitizing the center.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2025
He didn’t notice that they’d gone through another set of sliding glass doors until the puff of sanitizing air hit his skin again.
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
