fossilize

American  

[fos-uh-lahyz] / ˈfɒs əˌlaɪz /

especially British, fossilise

verb (used with object)

fossilized, fossilizing

1. Geology. to convert into a fossil; replace organic with mineral substances in the remains of an organism.

2. to change as if into mere lifeless remains or traces of the past.

3. to make rigidly antiquated.

   Time has fossilized such methods.

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verb (used without object)

fossilized, fossilizing

1. to become a fossil or like a fossil.

   The plant fossilized in comparatively recent geologic time.

2. Linguistics. (of a linguistic form, feature, rule, etc.) to become permanently established in the interlanguage of a second-language learner in a form that is deviant from the target-language norm and that continues to appear in performance regardless of further exposure to the target language.

fossilize British  

/ ˈfɒsɪˌlaɪz /

verb

1. to convert or be converted into a fossil

2. to become or cause to become antiquated or inflexible

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Other Word Forms

• fossilizable adjective
• fossilization noun
• semifossilized adjective
• unfossilized adjective

Etymology

Origin of fossilize

First recorded in 1785–95; fossil + -ize

Explanation

When something fossilizes, it becomes a fossil, meaning it leaves an impression in the Earth that far outlives the organism. Fossils are remnants left in rock of a living creature: the remnants have been petrified over many years and they leave an impression of what the animal was like. Fossilizing is a word for this process, which happens slowly over time. If dinosaurs had not fossilized, we wouldn't know much about what dinosaurs were like. The most likely parts of a creature to fossilize are hard parts like bones and shells.

Example Sentences

Because sharks possess skeletons made of cartilage, their bodies rarely fossilize.

From Science Daily • Nov. 22, 2025

Brain tissue doesn’t fossilize, and so researchers examine the shape and size of the brain cavity in fossilized dinosaur skulls to deduce what their brains may have been like.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 29, 2024

My mom emigrated from South Korea in 1967, bringing a set of flavors, techniques and recipes that would fossilize from that moment.

From Washington Post • Apr. 9, 2023

Historically, reports of scientists finding fossilized brain tissue have been controversial because it was once thought that nervous tissue couldn’t fossilize, Live Science previously reported.

From Scientific American • Oct. 5, 2022

If she kept changing, she could never fossilize into the thing their father had become .

From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan

Related Words

• dwindle
• shrink
• wilt
• wither