homogenize
Americanverb (used with object)
-
homogenizes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
homogenized,
past participle, past
-
homogenizing
present participle
-
to form by blending unlike elements; make homogeneous.
-
to prepare an emulsion, as by reducing the size of the fat globules in (milk or cream) in order to distribute them equally throughout.
-
to make uniform or similar, as in composition or function.
to homogenize school systems.
-
Metallurgy. to subject (metal) to high temperature to ensure uniform diffusion of components.
verb (used without object)
-
homogenizes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
homogenized,
past participle, past
-
homogenizing
present participle
verb
-
(tr) to break up the fat globules in (milk or cream) so that they are evenly distributed
-
to make or become homogeneous
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
homogenizesimple
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homogenizessimple
-
have homogenizedperfect
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has homogenizedperfect
-
am homogenizingprogressive
-
are homogenizingprogressive
-
is homogenizingprogressive
-
have been homogenizingperfect progressive
-
has been homogenizingperfect progressive
Past
-
homogenizedsimple
-
had homogenizedperfect
-
was homogenizingprogressive
-
were homogenizingprogressive
-
had been homogenizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of homogenize
First recorded in 1885–90; homogen(eous) + -ize
Explanation
To homogenize is to make something the same, or similar. When dairies homogenize milk, they mix it so the cream isn't separate from the rest of the milk, but instead all the liquid is the same consistency. When food processors homogenize milk, they make it uniform or alike, and when circumstances homogenize a neighborhood or school, the result is a group of people who generally all resemble each other. You might complain that high rents and gentrification in your town have homogenized it, leaving only wealthy professionals able to afford to live there. The Greek root, homogenes, means "of the same kind."
Vocabulary lists containing homogenize
Fast Food Nation
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A Culinary Vocabulary Sampler
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"Simon's Saga," Vocabulary from Episode 27
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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:
“Crash” eschewed Charli’s typical boundary-pushing electronic sound to aim for something notably more commercial, and, ever the rebel, Charli attempted to homogenize this marketable music with visual ideas that were more to her own taste.
From Salon ● Feb. 8, 2026
"We tried to homogenize the point density equally year by year to make comparative metrics," Choi said.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 6, 2024
This is storytelling as an act of resistance against colonialism’s effort to homogenize and erase.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 23, 2022
“When you homogenize a city, you destroy its feeling of urbanity,” Ms. Schulman said, referring to the banks and drugstores and chains retailers steadily wallpapering over the city’s indispensable quiddities.
From New York Times ● Feb. 25, 2020
The shared brief episode of communism failed to homogenize these parts of the continent.
From The Belgian Curtain Europe after Communism by Samuel Vaknin
“I do get wary of anything that homogenizes us.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2026
“It really homogenizes Asian American identity to be one thing when it really isn’t,” said Arshad, the Indian American student from Bentonville.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 19, 2022
Emergency thinking does damage to documentary; as dogma, it homogenizes its suffering victims, reducing its subjects’ stories to an artful piece of publicity.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 17, 2019
“They must either track any time that might be the subject of an innovative lawsuit,” Justice Thomas wrote, “or they must defend class actions against representative evidence that unfairly homogenizes an individual issue.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 22, 2016
TV homogenizes experience because it puts it all out there.
From Time Magazine Archive
One of Thursday’s allies posits a dire scenario in which books become “a managed formulaic enterprise without risk, excitement or imagination. Readers could be fed homogenized nonsense that could also ensure social compliance.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026
And I missed the uncompromising individuality of the original Broadway cast, which has been slightly homogenized for the North American tour.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2025
Somehow, somewhere when they homogenized the Derby, they pulled some of the fun out of it.
From Salon ● May 4, 2024
After 30 days of storage, an unprocessed organic shampoo sample turned from white to yellow and separated into two layers, whereas the spun shampoo didn't change color and remained homogenized.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 11, 2024
Don’t say huh-MODJ-uh-nus, a mispronunciation no doubt influenced by the word homogenized or the less familiar homogenous.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
"So, what we think we are seeing between the 1930s and the present is the effect of that migration basically homogenizing genetic variation."
From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2023
Yet these striking creatures, as well as vultures, ibises, and others with distinctive physical traits, are likely to be the first to go extinct, homogenizing the avian world, according to one study.
From Science Magazine ● Jul. 21, 2022
These economic and behavioral shifts are heightening concerns about the viability of independent restaurants in big cities, where they double as bulwarks against the homogenizing effect of corporate chains.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 20, 2022
The Mafia movie often pits these traditional values against the corrosive and homogenizing effects of American life.
From New York Times ● Sep. 29, 2021
It had a unifying character and exercised a homogenizing function within each viable political unit.
From The Civilization of Illiteracy by Mihai Nadin
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
