civilize
Americanverb (used with object)
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civilizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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civilized,
past participle, past
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civilizing
present participle
verb
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to bring out of savagery or barbarism into a state characteristic of civilization
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to refine, educate, or enlighten
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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civilizernoun
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overcivilizeverb
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decivilizeverb (used with object)
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uncivilizeverb (used with object)
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civilizableadjective
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civilizatoryadjective
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noncivilizableadjective
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uncivilizableadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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civilizesimple
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civilizessimple
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have civilizedperfect
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has civilizedperfect
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am civilizingprogressive
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are civilizingprogressive
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is civilizingprogressive
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have been civilizingperfect progressive
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has been civilizingperfect progressive
Past
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civilizedsimple
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had civilizedperfect
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was civilizingprogressive
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were civilizingprogressive
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had been civilizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of civilize
Explanation
To civilize is to make someone or something more tame or refined, and less wild. You might try to civilize your younger brother by teaching him some table manners. You can attempt to civilize your crazy dog, so you can invite people over without having her jump on them and chew on their shoes. You can also civilize a person by teaching them to be more sophisticated or tasteful: "My aunt tried to civilize me by taking me to museums and ballets, but I preferred watching professional wrestling on TV." The Latin word civilis is at the root of civilized, meaning "befitting a citizen" or "courteous."
Vocabulary lists containing civilize
We the People: Civ
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List 4
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All My Sons
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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:
By the fifth century BCE, some of the larger villages of Macedon grew big enough to be considered cities, and elite Macedonians made efforts to civilize their country in the style of the southern Greeks.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020
But their aim is the same: to drag resplendent nature indoors to hyperbolize and civilize its beauty.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2018
Outdoor summer shows in New York go back to at least 1824, when military bands performed in Battery Park at the tip of Manhattan, part of an initiative to civilize the locals.
From New York Times ● Aug. 9, 2018
You can civilize pungent shoes, too, with products that employ apple cider vinegar, cedar or charcoal to absorb rather than mask the acrid smell.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 31, 2018
"What happened to 'aye'?" "I'm trying to civilize me speech—my speech."
From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood
We sense early on, from Mortensen’s delicate handling of their courtship, that this isn’t some musty rehash of the trope where she civilizes him and he domesticates her.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2024
But there she is, one of the immortal characters of literature, and how can you not fall in love with somebody who civilizes savage people by telling them stories?
From New York Times ● Sep. 4, 2015
Far from revealing our barbarism, fighting civilizes us, Gottschall writes.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 15, 2015
It opened up a discussion about anonymity, pseudonymity and whether using real names civilizes the Internet.
From Forbes ● Oct. 15, 2012
Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys, Unfriendly to society's chief joys: Thy worst effect is banishing for hours The sex whose presence civilizes ours.
From Familiar Quotations A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature by John Bartlett
We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as a civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.
From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2026
Its credo was “a rejection of powerlessness and the creation of conditions for civilized behavior. We are not overmatched by the problems we face.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. said External link “taxes are what we pay for civilized society,” suggesting we get what we pay for.
From Barron's ● Apr. 14, 2026
“Ottoman elites internalized and even embraced European ideas about their own Empire. These elites aspired to become Westernized, which they saw as civilized and modern.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026
“Next time you’ve got a problem just tell me, and then we’ll sit down and talk about it like civilized human beings. Okay?”
From "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen
Heaney was born with a subject he often resisted, and “Digging” turns away from violence to the civilizing necessity of work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
Smith seems to want to say something about the civilizing influence of women and their survival in a world of unruly and domineering men.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 9, 2025
Love, in Marivaux’s world, is a civilizing force — much to the fairy’s fury.
From New York Times ● Apr. 26, 2024
The French called this aspect of imperialism “the civilizing mission.”
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
“I placed this young man with you,” she says to me in a terrible quiet voice, “in the hopes that you might provide a civilizing influence. It appears that I was gravely mistaken.”
From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline
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.
