systematize

American  

[sis-tuh-muh-tahyz] / ˈsɪs tə məˌtaɪz /

especially British, systematise

verb (used with object)

systematizes, present (3rd person singular) systematized, past participle, past systematizing present participle

1. to arrange in or according to a system; reduce to a system; make systematic.

   Synonyms:

   articulate, order, organize

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systematize British  

/ ˈsɪstɪməˌtaɪz /

verb

1. (tr) to arrange in a system

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• resystematization
  noun
• systematization
  noun
• systematizer
  noun
• oversystematize
  verb (used with object)
• resystematize
  verb (used with object)
• nonsystematized
  adjective
• quasi-systematized
  adjective
• unsystematized
  adjective
• unsystematizing
  adjective
• well-systematized
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• systematizing
  present
• systematized
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• systematize
  simple
• systematizes
  simple
• have systematized
  perfect
• has systematized
  perfect
• am systematizing
  progressive
• are systematizing
  progressive
• is systematizing
  progressive
• have been systematizing
  perfect progressive
• has been systematizing
  perfect progressive

Past

• systematized
  simple
• had systematized
  perfect
• was systematizing
  progressive
• were systematizing
  progressive
• had been systematizing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will systematize
  simple
• will have systematized
  perfect
• will be systematizing
  progressive
• will have been systematizing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of systematize

1755–65; < Greek systēmat- (stem of sýstēma ) system + -ize

Explanation

To systematize is to organize things into coherent groups or according to a specific plan. If cleaning your room feels overwhelming, you should systematize the job, breaking it down into orderly steps first. Whenever you arrange or organize something with a system in mind, you're systematizing. Math teachers systematize the subject before attempting to explain it to students, sorting concepts into an order that makes sense and organizing lessons so they gradually increase in difficulty. To teach your dog to shake your hand with his paw, you first need to systematize your training, starting with "sit," and working your way methodically toward your goal.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

systematize systematizes systematized systematizing

“The CEO’s attention flits onto something else, and they never systematize the change,” Sigelman said.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 28, 2024

Home economics started out as a way to systematize how you kept house so you did it as efficiently as possible.

From Salon ● May 9, 2021

For years we’ve opted not to make a massive public investment in elder care, or to systematize and formalize the ad hoc system it has created.

From Slate ● Mar. 11, 2020

Overall, Italian merchants, borrowing from their Arab and Turkic trading partners, pioneered efforts to rationalize and systematize business itself in order to make it more predictable and reliable.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020

His efforts to systematize his premonitions were useless.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This is, after all, a country that systematizes: we create seminars on how to make friends, teach classes in grieving and make pet walking a profession.

From Time Magazine Archive

In June, 1599, Diego García is sent to the islands as official visitor of the Jesuit missions there, and he at once reorganizes and systematizes their plan and conduct.

From The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 13 of 55 1604-1605 Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of The Catholic Missions, As Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century by Blair, Emma Helen

It's all right to plan your work; that's economy in mental expenditure, for it simplifies, systematizes, and saves work.

From Think A Book for To-day by Hunter, Col. Wm. C.

Upon this, again, a whole volume might be written—upon the thoroughness of an organization which really organizes, a training department that really trains, a system which really systematizes.

From The Romance of a Great Store by Hungerford, Edward

The development of such delirium annihilates, so to speak, the entire personality of the subject, and his entire mental life is invaded by abnormal extra and introspection—the delirium commands and systematizes all acquired impressions.

From Pathology of Lying, accusation, and swindling: a study in forensic psychology by Healy, William

“In general, at the studios, they systematized the production design, so that it was fast,” Kanjo said, describing the rigid process as militaristic.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026

As industrialization boomed across the world, time became standardized and systematized to meet the deadlines of false daylight.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

This dialogue is the first part of a diagnostic interview between a psychiatrist and a patient who has systematized delusions of persecution.

From Scientific American ● Feb. 1, 2023

Philosophers offer systematized accounts of morality that provide standards and norms of right conduct.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 15, 2022

Chapter 1, like Chapter 3, had not actually told him anything that he did not know; it had merely systematized the knowledge that he possessed already.

From "1984" by George Orwell

“We are systematizing a lot of things,” Capt. Yoshihiro Iwata, 44, said when the frigate was docked recently in Sasebo, in southwestern Japan.

From New York Times ● Dec. 13, 2023

I think about, “How do I create these businesses so that they have great leadership? Am I doing enough mentoring or enough systematizing of my own brain?”

From The Verge ● Aug. 2, 2022

“Although with her departure a wealth of especially valuable empirical knowledge is lost in linguistic terms, the possibility of rescuing and systematizing the language remain open,” she said.

From Reuters ● Feb. 17, 2022

He is credited with revolutionizing the celebrity security industry, inventing methods to evaluate the likelihood of threats, and rigorously systematizing security protocols.

From Slate ● Feb. 8, 2019

So Athens became the center of a burgeoning rhetoric industry, and with that came an increasing interest in systematizing the art.

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith