legalize
Americanverb (used with object)
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legalizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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legalized,
past participle, past
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legalizing
present participle
verb
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to make lawful or legal
-
to confirm or validate (something previously unlawful)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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legalizesimple
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legalizessimple
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have legalizedperfect
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has legalizedperfect
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am legalizingprogressive
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are legalizingprogressive
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is legalizingprogressive
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have been legalizingperfect progressive
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has been legalizingperfect progressive
Past
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legalizedsimple
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had legalizedperfect
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was legalizingprogressive
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were legalizingprogressive
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had been legalizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of legalize
Explanation
To legalize some activity is to change a law so that people are free to do it. You might live in a state that once banned fireworks, until citizens voted to legalize them—making Independence Day significantly noisier. When something that's been illegal goes through the process of becoming legal, the government legalizes it. Gambling was legalized in Nevada back in the 1930s. To legalize a person is to make them a legal citizen of a country. Today, many people argue for legalizing victimless crimes, or those that arguably don't hurt anyone.
Vocabulary lists containing legalize
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -ize
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-ize, List 2
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leg, legis
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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 overwhelmingly passed a bill to legalize the new stock.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Polymarket has an advantage there: U.S. states with the highest Hispanic populations, namely Texas and California, have yet to legalize traditional sports betting.
From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026
Is the federal government trying to push Minnesota to legalize gambling?
From Slate ● May 28, 2026
The council recently took the first step toward implementing the bill, voting to legalize four-story buildings in single-family neighborhoods that sit near the G Line busway, formerly known as the Orange Line.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
I write that America is my home in my heart, and how citizenship will legalize what I already feel.
From "The Sun Is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed into law a bill that effectively legalizes the cryptocurrency sector in the country.
From The Verge ● Mar. 17, 2022
“If California legalizes sports gambling it becomes very unlikely that another state would arise as the consumer-oriented opposer of sports gambling.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 18, 2022
A new Polish law took effect Tuesday that legalizes the pushbacks.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 26, 2021
Montenegro legalizes same-sex civil partnerships: Montenegro voted to legalize same-sex civil partnerships, becoming the first European country outside Western Europe and the European Union to legally recognize gay and lesbian couples.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 1, 2020
The act legalizes the deportation of people suspected of having “ties to terrorism.”
From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler
Marriage equality was legalized in all 50 states by the Supreme Court 11 years ago in Obergefell v.
From Salon ● Jun. 29, 2026
Nearly 70% of DraftKings Predictions sports trading volume is coming from states without legalized Sportsbook, according to Hickey, signaling that predictions markets aren’t cannibalizing DraftKings’ sports-betting business at a high rate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
Cuba's housing market emerged only in 2011, when the government legalized home sales.
From Barron's ● Apr. 24, 2026
Now, 32 states have legalized online sports betting, according to the American Gaming Association.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 17, 2026
Articles in the paper covered feminism, suffrage, sex education, legalized prostitution, vegetarianism, women in the military, and spiritualism.
From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling
More than 20 other states are working on legalizing this technology, according to Bright Saver, a nonprofit that tracks and advocates for this technology.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
Call me naive, but that’s what I thought most sports betting would look like after the Supreme Court struck down a law in 2018 that had prevented states from legalizing the practice.
From Slate ● Apr. 28, 2026
However, if those states end up legalizing sports betting, the company said, it will stop offering sports-prediction markets and offer its traditional sports-betting platform instead.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 24, 2025
Accordingly, he called for legalizing the practice so it could be “brought out of the underground and into the sunlight where it can be appropriately monitored and regulated.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2025
Two men loudly discuss how Patel has been successful in legalizing their family members.
From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario
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.
