depersonalize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to make impersonal.
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to deprive of personality or individuality.
a mechanistic society that is depersonalizing its members.
verb
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to deprive (a person, organization, system, etc) of individual or personal qualities; render impersonal
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to cause (someone) to lose his sense of personal identity
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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depersonalizesimple
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depersonalizessimple
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have depersonalizedperfect
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has depersonalizedperfect
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am depersonalizingprogressive
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are depersonalizingprogressive
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is depersonalizingprogressive
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have been depersonalizingperfect progressive
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has been depersonalizingperfect progressive
Past
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depersonalizedsimple
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had depersonalizedperfect
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was depersonalizingprogressive
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were depersonalizingprogressive
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had been depersonalizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of depersonalize
First recorded in 1865–70; de- + personalize
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 French revolutionaries feared industrialization would depersonalize society by marginalizing skilled artisans.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
“It’s easy to depersonalize it and think these women are bad people,” Cadwallader said.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 4, 2022
All these factors are combining to depersonalize medicine and suck the soul out of many providers.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 9, 2021
The trouble with these numbers, though, isn’t only the enormity of them; it is the way that they depersonalize the crisis.
From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2019
Another widespread misconception is that numbers depersonalize or somehow diminish individuality.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
This depersonalizes the tip and can discourage generous tipping.
From New York Times ● Apr. 9, 2023
The copying program depersonalizes things such as photos, kids’ drawings, handwritten notes and birthday cards - connections to home and family important to those on the inside.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 5, 2018
She loves to personify the inhuman at the same time as she depersonalizes the human, creating a swirl of slippery images out of our already ridiculous conceptions.
From Slate ● Jun. 2, 2014
Language stabilizes, induces uniformity, depersonalizes; television keeps up with change, allows and invites diversity, makes possible personalized interaction among those connected through a TV chain of cameras and receivers.
From The Civilization of Illiteracy by Nadin, Mihai
His criticisms of Democrats tend to include the depersonalized terms “policy choices” and “policy decisions.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
This is measured in television ratings, social media interactions, betting and in the murky, depersonalized world of fantasy sports.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 8, 2023
The messages on social media blaming her family for its own tragedy are typical of depersonalized Internet viciousness.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 2, 2021
I anticipated adding to my already considerable Zoom fatigue, feeling rushed and depersonalized.
From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2020
Meaning, therefore, cannot be depersonalized; if meanings are depersonalized, they cease to be real, and become verbal.
From Pragmatism by Murray, D. L.
A May 2025 follow-up, “I’m Camera,” dealt with the depersonalizing effects of sudden attention.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2025
By depersonalizing death and making it into a rote spectacle, Perkins loses any heart that could give his film the resonance it so desperately needs.
From Salon ● Feb. 21, 2025
Staging can be as simple as decluttering and depersonalizing a house while you’re still living there.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 24, 2023
But I’ve found that when interventions oversimplify and universalize complicated feelings under the banner of burnout, they compound my sense of losing control, depersonalizing an experience already marred by depersonalization.
From Slate ● May 17, 2023
So long as Mary was a child, her claim upon her mother had to some extent balanced the claims of what many might have thought a devastating and depersonalizing charity.
From The Case of Richard Meynell by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.
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.
