democratize
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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democratizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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democratized,
past participle, past
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democratizing
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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de-democratizationnoun
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democratizationnoun
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democratizernoun
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redemocratizationnoun
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undemocratizationnoun
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de-democratizeverb
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redemocratizeverb
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undemocratizeverb (used with object)
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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democratizesimple
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democratizessimple
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have democratizedperfect
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has democratizedperfect
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am democratizingprogressive
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are democratizingprogressive
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is democratizingprogressive
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have been democratizingperfect progressive
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has been democratizingperfect progressive
Past
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democratizedsimple
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had democratizedperfect
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was democratizingprogressive
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were democratizingprogressive
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had been democratizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of democratize
1790–1800; < French démocratiser, equivalent to démocrate democrat + -iser -ize
Explanation
To democratize is to make an organization more democratic, supporting a system in which all citizens have a voice or a vote. When you democratize your school French club, you allow every member to vote on each decision. You'll most often see the verb democratize in the context of world politics, when countries that have historically not been democracies change their governments to be more democratic. In many cases, other countries, such as the U.S., try to influence such governments to make this change: they democratize them, in other words. The word democratize comes from the Greek root demokratia, "popular government," from demos, "common people," and kratos, "rule."
Vocabulary lists containing democratize
We the People: Dem
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-cracy, -crat
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Comparative Political Systems
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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:
"That would truly democratize access to CAR-T cell therapy."
From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026
The cord-cutting revolution was supposed to democratize television, liberating citizens from corporate gatekeepers.
From Salon ● Jun. 21, 2026
That is why MarketWatch exists, to democratize financial news, and why The Moneyist column exists too.
From MarketWatch ● May 12, 2026
He pitched it as a way to democratize access to a successful hedge-fund strategy for ordinary investors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 10, 2026
The woman with the pay envelope may democratize thrift.
From Mobilizing Woman-Power by Harriot Stanton Blatch
It democratizes constitutional enforcement because it poses the simplest and most urgent question: Does the state have actual grounds to take away this person’s liberty?
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
It democratizes royal dignity, extending it to everyone—man and woman, slave and sovereign, each bearing inestimable worth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
The business partners said their service-charge model democratizes a dining staff’s earnings for everyone in their restaurants, and that customers are offered information that states the fee is not a tip.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2023
“I know that how China democratizes and comes to value human rights, that’s the Chinese people’s responsibility and work.”
From Seattle Times ● May 9, 2022
The TikTok tabloid democratizes access to fame while fueling America's cultural penchant for gossip.
From Salon ● Feb. 5, 2022
With rentals belly up and access to films democratized, there was no further push to innovate, no concerted attempt to compete with the real Hollywood studios.
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026
The new model for AI deployment will be more democratized, with societal benefits that are widely shared and where companies avoid dependency on a small group of frontier models, he said in the interview.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
Bhatia added that “AI has taken the creative market by storm, and essentially overnight, democratized the highly technical skills creative professionals had built.”
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 26, 2026
The glasses—with chunky frames embedded with cameras and microphones—are the way Zuckerberg imagines AI will be democratized for personal users.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 14, 2026
He had reduced private ownership of land, nationalized certain sectors of the economy, pioneered rapid industrialization, democratized education, and built a modem army.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
Tesla's posts touted what it called the vehicle's safety and ease of use for disabled people, and said the Cybercab was "democratizing clean transportation for all."
From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026
And just as democratizing access to the internet was a policy concern in the 2000s, ensuring that people can easily get offline is becoming a focus of this era.
From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2026
“Privée is democratizing entry into a category traditionally controlled by boutique relationships, and resale markups,” said Wayne Geffen, who founded Vivrelle with his wife, Blake Geffen.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
The fund was founded in 2022 with the mission of democratizing access to top private tech companies, Benjamin Miller, the CEO of Fundrise, told MarketWatch.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 25, 2026
Barack and I knew we wanted to do a better job of democratizing the White House, making it feel less elitist and more open.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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.
