galvanize
Americanverb (used with object)
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galvanizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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galvanized,
past participle, past
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galvanizing
present participle
verb
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to stimulate to action; excite; startle
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to cover (iron, steel, etc) with a protective zinc coating by dipping into molten zinc or by electrodeposition
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to stimulate by application of an electric current
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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galvanizationnoun
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galvanizernoun
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regalvanizationnoun
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pregalvanizeverb (used with object)
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regalvanizeverb (used with object)
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nongalvanizedadjective
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ungalvanizedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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galvanizesimple
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galvanizessimple
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have galvanizedperfect
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has galvanizedperfect
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am galvanizingprogressive
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are galvanizingprogressive
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is galvanizingprogressive
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have been galvanizingperfect progressive
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has been galvanizingperfect progressive
Past
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galvanizedsimple
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had galvanizedperfect
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was galvanizingprogressive
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were galvanizingprogressive
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had been galvanizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of galvanize
First recorded in 1795–1805; from French galvaniser, named after Luigi Galvani; see -ize
Explanation
The verb galvanize means to stimulate or incite someone into taking action. Your impassioned speech might galvanize the other members of the Ecology Club to start a school-wide recycling initiative. The word galvanize initially meant "to stimulate muscles by administering electric shocks." It was coined to honor the 18th-century scientist Luigi Galvani, who found that a spark could make a frog's legs move. This discovery of "animal electricity" inspired Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, (a novel in which a mad scientist attempts to use electricity to galvanize a monster to life). Galvanize also means to cover steel or iron with zinc so it doesn’t rust.
Vocabulary lists containing galvanize
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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:
It was also likely a means to galvanize himself against how that experience alerted him to the omnipresent nearness of death.
From Slate ● Jul. 10, 2026
We have to galvanize our people to understand that the power is within us.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
The violence helped galvanize public support for passage of the Voting Rights Act later that year.
From Salon ● May 17, 2026
She later ran for school board and won in November, eager to galvanize change.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
Ann quickly found a focus for her housing work that fall, in two incidents that would galvanize the black community in Durham over the next few years.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
It just sort of galvanizes and I'm seeing all of that now.
From BBC ● Nov. 7, 2025
“Louisiana’s Jena Six beating case galvanizes S.F.’s ‘black MoveOn,’ ” San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 22, 2007.
From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2024
These dynamics are very different from other evolutionary systems where inter-group conflict galvanizes cooperative responses -- the nested and sequential nature of the evolution of natural resource governance systems causes the difference.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 20, 2024
The ever-bounding Hurlin, along with an equally forceful Gonzalez, galvanizes the scene with choreography that frees itself from some of its straight-ahead flatness.
From New York Times ● Jun. 23, 2023
Seeing the paper chain in danger galvanizes them into action.
From "Linked" by Gordon Korman
Most residents aren’t engaged enough to come to board meetings, which typically draw about 10 attendees, let alone be galvanized by allegations of a conflict of interest, he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
The Jim Crow Era ushered in a new kind of slavery but eventually galvanized Congress to establish some of its most impactful legislation, in the VRA and the Civil Rights Act.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
Platner galvanized an enthusiastic base of supporters and weathered months of controversies surrounding his personal life by selling a story of redemption and what he called “healthy” masculinity.
From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2026
The industry’s push for rule changes has been galvanized by recent mega awards.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
Laurence Hurd, a Church of Christ minister, came to Odessa and galvanized the Southside minority community into demanding a desegregated school system.
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
Perhaps, someday in the future, the spirit of 2020 will be revived with a new galvanizing philosophy: Most of our fellow citizens might actually be good people.
From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2026
Grassroots efforts at the municipal level have been far more effective in galvanizing resistance to the creation of new immigration prisons.
From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2026
She said the peaceful demonstrations since the start of the sprawling immigration raids were a strength of the movement galvanizing against the raids.
From Barron's ● Jan. 31, 2026
“North” was a galvanizing book for its bog poems as well as sequences such as “Singing School” and “Whatever You Say Say Nothing”:
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
“I should tell her I’ve arrived,” Pet said, and Jam jumped up, a current of alarm galvanizing her.
From "Pet" by Akwaeke Emezi
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.
