mechanization

American  

[mek-uh-nahy-zey-shuhn] / ˌmɛk ə naɪˈzeɪ ʃən /

especially British, mechanisation

noun

1. the act or process of causing a task to be performed or operated by machinery.

   The mechanization of cinnamon processing has also solved health and sanitation issues plaguing the industry.

2. the act or process of introducing machines into an industry or other area of activity in order to replace human labor.

   Hay loaders are another example of the increasing mechanization of agriculture.

3. the act or process of subordinating the spiritual to the material, or of explaining something totally in terms of material forces.

   There is a vague unease with the artificiality of technology, with its imperialistic mechanization of a world from which we ourselves feel strangely alien.

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Other Word Forms

• antimechanization noun

Etymology

Origin of mechanization

mechaniz(e) ( def. ) + -ation

Explanation

The process of beginning to use machines, technology, and automation to do work is called mechanization. A farm's mechanization might include replacing a horse-drawn plow with a gas-powered tractor. Your candy-making business might start in your kitchen, where you make truffles by hand, shaping each individual chocolate yourself. Mechanization could mean having them made on an assembly line. Throughout history, mechanization has meant faster production and increased revenue, though it can also result in the loss of jobs. Mechanization can be traced back to the Greek mekhanikos, "inventive or ingenious" and also "pertaining to machines."

Example Sentences

“Art is the thing that we should never let go of, never surrender to mechanization or artificial intelligence,” Del Toro adds.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 10, 2026

Public- and private-sector researchers have experimented with mechanization for decades, but progress has been slow.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 29, 2025

John Deskins, director of the West Virginia University Bureau of Business and Economic Research, said 75% of West Virginia’s coal jobs were disappearing before coal production dropped because of mechanization.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 11, 2023

"A computer destroys the sense of historical succession, just as do other forms of mechanization," Berry wrote in the same essay.

From Salon • Jun. 18, 2023

But mechanization wasn’t Duke’s only weapon in the struggle for market dominance.

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson

Related Words

• computerization
• industrialization