externalize
Americanverb (used with object)
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externalizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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externalized,
past participle, past
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externalizing
present participle
verb
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to make external; give outward shape to
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psychol to attribute (one's own feelings) to one's surroundings
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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externalizesimple
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externalizessimple
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have externalizedperfect
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has externalizedperfect
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am externalizingprogressive
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are externalizingprogressive
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is externalizingprogressive
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have been externalizingperfect progressive
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has been externalizingperfect progressive
Past
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externalizedsimple
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had externalizedperfect
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was externalizingprogressive
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were externalizingprogressive
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had been externalizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of externalize
Explanation
If you externalize something, you show or express it on the outside. You can externalize your anger at the poor quality of the food at the restaurant, but the other patrons would probably prefer you didn't rant at the waiter in front of them — so would the waiter. Psychologically speaking, externalize is the opposite of internalize. You can externalize your fears in a constructive way by writing about them or drawing them, which will help you make sense of them. This is a much better solution than internalizing your fears, because you need to face them and deal with them once and for all. If you keep them bottled up, it is just like to cause you anxiety.
Vocabulary lists containing externalize
The Shining
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The River
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Zlata’s Diary
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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:
“The economic pain is worse, but Iran has found a way during the course of the war to externalize that pain,” Batmanghelidj said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
“Your head’s not for managing, reminding, prioritizing. You need to externalize all that.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2023
"The agribusiness system has relied on the ability to externalize these costs to downstream communities," said Tom Zimnicki, the Agricultural & Restoration Policy Director for the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2022
But there are certain people that become so frenzied around human beings that are compelled to externalize their inner life, and there’s a jealousy thing that drives people crazy.
From Seattle Times ● May 25, 2022
“That’s what I mean. You have to tell me everything, externalize it all for me, so I can write it.”
From "The River" by Gary Paulsen
Phthalate exposure is just one way the plastics industry externalizes harms.
From Salon ● Feb. 9, 2024
Gorbis also developed a “crooked mirror” that exaggerates patients’ distortions, which externalizes the distorted self-image.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2023
As Irene’s tension mounts, the film externalizes it through other symbols: a loudly ticking grandfather clock, a pot of water boiling over and even her breaking a teapot at a midday social in her home.
From New York Times ● Nov. 19, 2021
I realized this past summer that this friend is self-absorbed and externalizes blame, and that I tend to feel drained in her presence.
From Slate ● Apr. 10, 2017
Whoso fixes and externalizes, operates with natural materials, which he does not create, but combines and transforms.
From Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic by Benedetto Croce
However, the moment the democracy debate becomes externalized, many Indians become irritated and end up closing ranks against “outsiders.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 20, 2023
This is the price tag of externalized costs and public subsidies.
From Salon ● Jan. 8, 2023
That trick relies on incalculable losses that can be externalized from the financial arithmetic, but not from the world itself.
From Slate ● Nov. 26, 2022
He’s made a film where one man’s internal strife has been effectively externalized as an inescapable, picturesque purgatory.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2022
Here was her humanity externalized, and all her longing—for freedom, from disgust, from the confines of her metal cage.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Research has long suggested a link between mothers' mental health during pregnancy and children's externalizing behaviors.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 16, 2023
Tradition is prime among the many wonderful, terrible traits that make us human, with no example externalizing this quite so well as the holiday meal.
From Salon ● Jun. 29, 2023
How do we avoid forms of tourism that can advertise low prices because they are exploiting workers, using the dirtiest fuel available, and externalizing the costs of pollution?
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 23, 2022
She does so by externalizing the book’s subtle allusions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 16, 2022
It cannot grasp the true, interior and spiritual meaning, except in just so far as intellect is capable of externalizing them.
From The Light of Egypt; or, the science of the soul and the stars — Volume 2 by Thomas H. Burgoyne
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.
