- past tense form of centralize.
- past participle of centralize.
centralized
Americanadjective
-
controlled from one place.
The individual police departments will transition to the centralized dispatch system beginning in October.
After years of opting for top-down regulatory approaches, the new administration has decided to move toward a less centralized form of government oversight.
-
existing in one place, or being the center point of a network: The system allows users to record subscriber complaints in a single database, creating a centralized source of information to assist us in pinpointing systematic delivery problems.
Each computer has a twisted-pair cable that runs to a centralized hub.
The system allows users to record subscriber complaints in a single database, creating a centralized source of information to assist us in pinpointing systematic delivery problems.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of centralized
Explanation
Anything that's centralized is under the control of one unified authority or located in a single place, like a centralized government. If a business is centralized, it operates from a central location, rather than spreading things out between stores, offices, or factories. Managers of satellite offices have less power if they work for a centralized company, where decisions are made in a home office. A centralized government works the same way, with power concentrated in the executive branch. Centralized derives from a Latin word meaning "center" and the Greek root kentron, "sharp point."
Vocabulary lists containing centralized
Eastern Europe - Introductory
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Eastern Europe - Middle School and High School
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Japanese History - Middle School and High School
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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.
The technique could be used both in large centralized facilities and in smaller local systems that take advantage of waste heat from major industrial operations.
From Science Daily • Jun. 2, 2026
Okta’s digital-security framework has an advantage over peers’ because of its centralized platform, which will help the company gather market share, the analyst writes.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 29, 2026
He anticipates Okta becoming a centralized platform that customers use for both human and AI agent identities.
From MarketWatch • May 28, 2026
“Researchers track these whales daily, but we can scale their impact by crowdsourcing data from the many more numerous commercial and recreational boats, and building a centralized alert system,” Liccardo said in a release.
From Los Angeles Times • May 21, 2026
These people, whose origins lay in the salaried middle class and the upper grades of the working class, had been shaped and brought together by the barren world of monopoly industry and centralized government.
From "1984" by George Orwell
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.
