commodify
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to turn into a commodity; make commercial.
-
to treat as if a commodity.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of commodify
First recorded in 1975–80; commod(ity) ( def. ) + -ify ( def. )
Explanation
If your friend was charging you money to hang out with him, he would be trying to commodify your relationship, which means "turn into an opportunity to make money." Commodify comes from commodity, which often means "an item that can be bought and sold for money," plus the suffix -ify which is usually used to mean "make or turn into." So this word means "to make or turn into something that can be bought and sold for money." This term is often used in a disapproving way to imply that whatever is being commodified shouldn't be, maybe because it's special or private.
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:
We hadn’t really figured out yet how damaging it might be to take an in infant and follow his entire life and commodify it as though he was our own.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2026
“Maybe the hotel industry will finally start paying attention and realize they can’t commodify privacy,” she said, “because people will just take their money and their travel budget to hotels that still have bathroom doors.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 20, 2026
"It's driven by this desire to make money out of this – the more likes people can get the more they can possibly commodify the photography they're getting in these places", Garrett said.
From BBC ● Jan. 12, 2026
The pursuit of online fame, particularly through Instagram, has supercharged the often toxic phenomenon, The Times found, encouraging parents to commodify their daughter’s images.
From New York Times ● Feb. 22, 2024
According to Andrews and a dissenting California Supreme Court judge, the ruling didn’t prevent commercialization; it just took patients out of the equation and emboldened scientists to commodify tissues in increasing numbers.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
Robinson’s lawyers flagged the Polymarket bets to the presiding judge, arguing the wagering was a “morally dubious enterprise” that commodified death-penalty litigation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
When the founders of social media platforms and their VC backers realized self-expression could be commodified, the ad-driven, data-based new experiences were a betrayal.
From Salon ● Jun. 18, 2026
Conceived as spaces of respite for athletes — whom Opie believes are more often commodified than nurtured — the pavilions will incorporate photos by the artist that reflect California’s “fragile environment.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2026
They have been much more concerned about businesses like Qlik and Qualtrics, which help companies analyze and visualize data, tasks that some investors think could become commodified.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 26, 2026
The more commodified and restricted our access to information, the less efficient the operation of the market, the more poorly it allocates resources in our society.
From The Public Domain Enclosing the Commons of the Mind by James Boyle
Beyond Field Trip, some experts express skepticism about these new programs, which could be viewed as commodifying human relationships.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 2, 2023
"The psychosocial demands of the climate crisis also call for an examination of how our clinical formulations and treatments can reinforce counterproductive extracting, hyper individuation, monetizing, producing, consuming, and commodifying self-identities and values," he continued.
From Salon ● Jan. 9, 2022
Published in 1984, it contended that Mr. Hefner, in commodifying her, had been partly responsible for her death.
From New York Times ● Jan. 6, 2022
The album honors the Black American folk tradition without bastardizing or commodifying it.
From Slate ● Dec. 7, 2021
We are, in effect, providing that corporation—Disney—with a form of free advertising, commodifying and cheapening our justice work in the process.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 23, 2021
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
