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Synonyms

hybridize

American  
[hahy-bri-dahyz] / ˈhaɪ brɪˌdaɪz /
especially British, hybridise

verb (used with object)

  • hybridizes,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • hybridized,
    past participle,  past
  • hybridizing
    present participle
  1. to cause to produce hybrids; cross.

  2. to breed or cause the production of (a hybrid).

  3. to form in a hybrid manner.


verb (used without object)

  • hybridizes,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • hybridized,
    past participle,  past
  • hybridizing
    present participle
  1. to produce hybrids.

  2. to cause the production of hybrids by crossing.

  3. to form a double-stranded nucleic acid of two single strands of DNA or RNA, or one of each, by allowing the base pairs of the separate strands to form complementary bonds.

  4. to fuse two cells of different genotypes into a hybrid cell.

hybridize British  
/ ˈhaɪbrɪˌdaɪz /

verb

  1. to produce or cause to produce hybrids; crossbreed

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of hybridize

First recorded in 1835–45; hybrid + -ize

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:

One potential advantage to lice as markers of human migrations is that the parasites can hybridize even if their human hosts do not, Pedersen notes.

From Science Magazine ● Nov. 7, 2023

But when different species hybridize, beneficial genes that have evolved in one species can, through mating with the hybrid, migrate to the other species in the blink of an evolutionary eye.

From Scientific American ● Aug. 15, 2022

“Seek You” is part of a growing trend of graphic narratives that hybridize memoir with social history rendered both verbally and visually.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2021

CBS’s grandfather of news magazines isn’t going anywhere, but it is facing competition from the likes of Vice News and even Frontline and other outlets that hybridize online reporting with a TV presence.

From Salon ● May 26, 2019

They were mostly self-pollinating: that is, the crop varieties could pollinate themselves and pass on their own desirable genes unchanged, instead of having to hybridize with other varieties less useful to humans.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

The author hybridizes many forms of nonfiction to explore questions people have been asking about war for centuries.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2022

“Where there’s love overflowing” hybridizes the White Cube and the Black Box — the normative settings for fine art and avant-garde theater, respectively.

From New York Times ● May 3, 2022

"Homecoming" hybridizes the concert film with a backstage exploration of intellectual consciousness.

From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2021

Ingalls’s work hybridizes classical literature and mid-century Americana.

From The New Yorker ● Feb. 25, 2019

The species hybridizes freely with the Bullock Oriole in western Kansas, and individuals morphologically typical of Baltimore Orioles are rare west of the 100th meridian.

From The Breeding Birds of Kansas by Richard F. Johnston

Ben Hania’s last film was another bold meshing of the factual and the fictionalized, the hybridized Oscar-nominated documentary “Four Daughters,” in which a real Tunisian family processes personal tragedy through role-playing for the director’s camera.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2025

Among fast cars, the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X—a hybridized, 1,250-hp monster—debuts with a price tag starting just over 200 grand.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2025

Abe’s focused approach to pleats and her hybridized design techniques have continued to evolve, maintaining Sacai’s position at the forefront of Japan’s fashion vanguard.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 21, 2024

This study shows that the analysis of ancient genomes, coupled with archaeological data, makes it possible to trace different stages in the history of hybridized species.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2023

We know from Sumerian and later depictions that onagers were regularly hunted, as well as captured and hybridized with donkeys and horses.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

As the pre-war avant-garde’s celebration of image-breaking, violent spectacle and weird hybridizing became muddy reality in the field, the amateurs outstripped the professionals.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

Thanks to zealous breeding and new hybridizing techniques, begonias are booming right along with the renaissance of houseplants.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 18, 2021

John Lonsdale, a breeder and grower in Exton, Pa., says he is still content “to let the bees do their work,” but he acknowledges the efficiency of hybridizing.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 23, 2021

George C. Thomas Jr. was a product of wealth, a man who could afford to spend his days breeding English setters, hybridizing roses and designing golf courses.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2015

Using a different method, Jorge Mora-Urpi, one of Clement’s collaborators, concluded that Indians might have bred the modern peach palm by hybridizing palms from several areas, including the Peruvian Amazon.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

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