collectivize

American  

[kuh-lek-tuh-vahyz] / kəˈlɛk təˌvaɪz /

especially British, collectivise

verb (used with object)

collectivized, collectivizing

1. to organize (a people, industry, economy, etc.) according to the principles of collectivism.

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collectivize British  

/ kəˈlɛktɪˌvaɪz /

verb

1. (tr) to organize according to the principles of collectivism

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Other Word Forms

• collectivization noun
• decollectivize verb (used with object)

Etymology

Origin of collectivize

First recorded in 1890–95; collective + -ize

Explanation

To collectivize is to give up individual ownership of an industry and form a collaborative group instead. In the early 1930s, the Soviet Union collectivized almost all of its agricultural land into large-scale shared farms. Collectivize means "to form into a collective," a term that’s most often associated with communism. In the Soviet Union, it was Joseph Stalin who came up with the idea of collective farms as a way to boost productivity and free peasants from poverty. However, some historians see collectivization as one of the causes of the Soviet Union's terrible famines during the 1930s.

Example Sentences

Running counter to the idolatry of the individual is the impulse to collectivize: for anointed individuals to bring their crews along with them, giving them credit, too, where it’s due.

From New York Times • Oct. 13, 2021

“It stems from this different place where people tend to collectivize us in their imagination.”

From New York Times • Jun. 6, 2021

“It’s one thing to think we can collectivize agriculture,” he said.

From Washington Post • Aug. 26, 2020

The way to make more walruses and reindeer was to collectivize their herding and killing.

From The New Yorker • Aug. 15, 2019

On a possible collectivization of agriculture: "We will never collectivize."

From Time Magazine Archive