commercialize
Americanverb (used with object)
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commercializes,
present (3rd person singular)
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commercialized,
past participle, past
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commercializing
present participle
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to make commercial in character, methods, or spirit.
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to emphasize the profitable aspects of, especially at the expense of quality.
to commercialize one's artistic talent.
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to offer for sale; make available as a commodity.
verb
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to make commercial in aim, methods, or character
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to exploit for profit, esp at the expense of quality
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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commercializationnoun
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commercializernoun
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decommercializationnoun
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overcommercializationnoun
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decommercializeverb (used with object)
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overcommercializeverb (used with object)
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quasi-commercializedadjective
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uncommercializedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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commercializesimple
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commercializessimple
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have commercializedperfect
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has commercializedperfect
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am commercializingprogressive
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are commercializingprogressive
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is commercializingprogressive
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have been commercializingperfect progressive
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has been commercializingperfect progressive
Past
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commercializedsimple
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had commercializedperfect
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was commercializingprogressive
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were commercializingprogressive
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had been commercializingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of commercialize
Explanation
To commercialize something is to make money from it. If you're a painter, you might commercialize your art by printing greeting cards and selling them online. The verb commercialize comes from the adjective commercial, "done for financial profit," and its root, the Latin commercium, "trade." When you take an activity or an organization and manage it so that it results in a profit, you commercialize it. Delivering baked goods to your neighbors out of a sense of generosity is one thing — when you start charging them two dollars per cookie, you've commercialized your hobby.
Vocabulary lists containing commercialize
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:
The company says it will take multiples of that sum to commercialize the discovery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Under the deal, AstraZeneca is acquiring worldwide rights to develop and commercialize Dizal’s Zegfrovy, which is approved in the U.S. and China for the treatment of a type of advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
The 33rd US president later wrote that it was wrong to "commercialize on the prestige and dignity of the office of the presidency".
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026
The funding comes through the agency’s National Quantum Virtual Laboratory program, which unites researchers, industry, and government to develop and commercialize quantum technology.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
With three partners, Cottrell established a company to commercialize the process.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Words such as love, trust, freedom, responsibility and choice have been deformed by a market logic that commercializes and commodifies all relations of exchange.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2022
Seagen, which develops and commercializes cancer drugs, saw its shares rise after news of the possible bid.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 7, 2022
“That’s very impressive,” says Stephen Dobson, a medical entomologist at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, and the founder of MosquitoMate, a company that commercializes Wolbachia as a tool to control the Asian tiger mosquito.
From Nature ● Jul. 16, 2019
Cloudera, a Hortonworks competitor that also commercializes Hadoop, has amassed more than $1 billion in funding from investors is the furthest along in the experiment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 3, 2016
The man who discovers means to help his fellowman, does a good act, but it is the man with the dollars in front of his eyes that commercializes the discovery and invention.
From Evening Round Up More Good Stuff Like Pep by William Crosbie Hunter
“But that’s not what’s being commercialized by the rest of the industry.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
The tech giant has organized a press launch event in New York to present the Pixel Tag, a rival to the AirTag, a tracking device commercialized by Apple since 2021.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
If the technology is commercialized, a single programmable optical chip could perform several tasks, including controlling signal speed and switching between different functions.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026
“I didn’t love it as much as the other because of the commercialized feeling of it, and just the fact it never felt you were alone in Yosemite,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
When it comes to money, the question isn’t whether human tissues and tissue research will be commercialized.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
In 2025, researchers published around 25,000 papers about 3-D printing of batteries and their components, yet only a handful of startups have even proposed commercializing the technology.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Today, CSL Behring is entirely responsible for commercializing the treatment.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
The current valuation “makes an investment in Cerebras risky, as it is in very early stages of commercializing its product and it is unclear how much of the market they can capture,” Luria said.
From MarketWatch ● May 15, 2026
Disclosures: Roxhed is a founder and shareholder of Capitainer AB, a company commercializing the blood collection devices used in this study.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 15, 2026
“Netscape helped to guarantee that these open protocols would not be proprietary by commercializing them for the public,” said Andreessen.
From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman
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.
