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
Under my leadership, this council won’t externalize our policymaking authority.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 4, 2024
For Rodrigo, music is a vehicle for “expressing those feelings that are really hard to externalize, or that you feel aren’t societally acceptable to externalize,” she told the New York Times.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2023
But, to externalize Irene’s internal thoughts and her sublimated identity, the movie makes what is suggested in the novel far more explicit.
From New York Times ● Nov. 19, 2021
“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
On the other hand, Turrell’s art externalizes light, and he can seem consummately American in offering such a literal and hedonistic version of transcendence.
From New York Times ● Feb. 24, 2022
He externalizes blame and sees himself as wronged.
From Slate ● Jun. 28, 2016
It is the expression of "inner states" but it externalizes itself in terms of the outer world.
From The Gate of Appreciation Studies in the Relation of Art to Life by Carleton Eldredge Noyes
Peter’s inner despair gets externalized when he invents a genetic inhibitor neck implant to tamp down his sensitivity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
Migration control “is almost completely externalized to Tunisia,” Megerisi said.
From New York Times ● Apr. 5, 2023
When I needed to, I externalized my reasons—how it would upend the lives of my husband, my family, my friends.
From Slate ● May 18, 2022
With Coleman and women like her — and there are many women like her — it's more useful to think of externalized misogyny.
From Salon ● Mar. 15, 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
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
The weird sets he and everyone else walk through are an aesthetic a bonus, externalizing the nightmarishness of their excessive financial burden.
From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2021
The order of training is, then, generally, to modify our self-consciousness by externalizing our thoughts and broadening our interests; specifically, to eliminate the unduly insistent habit of thought.
From Why Worry? by George Lincoln Walton
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
