popularize
Americanverb (used with object)
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popularizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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popularized,
past participle, past
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popularizing
present participle
verb
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to make popular; make attractive to the general public
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to make or cause to become easily understandable or acceptable
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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popularizationnoun
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popularizernoun
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repopularizationnoun
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depopularizeverb (used with object)
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repopularizeverb (used with object)
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antipopularizationadjective
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semipopularizedadjective
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unpopularizedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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popularizesimple
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popularizessimple
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have popularizedperfect
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has popularizedperfect
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am popularizingprogressive
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are popularizingprogressive
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is popularizingprogressive
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have been popularizingperfect progressive
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has been popularizingperfect progressive
Past
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popularizedsimple
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had popularizedperfect
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was popularizingprogressive
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were popularizingprogressive
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had been popularizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of popularize
Vocabulary lists containing popularize
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:
Ben Rosen, an influential Wall Street analyst and venture capitalist who helped popularize personal computers, died on Aug. 23 at the age of 93.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
He helped popularize Egyptian jeel music: a genre that incorporates elements of reggae and pop, while maintaining a distinctly Egyptian sound.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
Sherry Zhu, 23, helped popularize habits like drinking hot water, eating boiled apples and wearing slippers around the house.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 24, 2026
Since Robinhood helped popularize commission-free trading, introducing a new generation of investors to buying and selling securities on their smartphones, trading volumes in U.S. equity options have exploded.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 24, 2026
Pilar Ternera was the one who contributed most to popularize that mystification when she conceived the trick of reading the past in cards as she had read the future before.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ultimately, gaming may well end up being what popularizes the metaverse.
From New York Times ● Jan. 19, 2022
Since then more than 15 million people have watched the documentary on Upworthy, which aggregates and popularizes videos and other online content.
From BusinessWeek ● Aug. 1, 2013
He’s been on his own now for a couple of decades, a philosopher-showman with an immense following whose art popularizes Post-Minimalism’s strategies with the use of big, accessible themes.
From New York Times ● Nov. 19, 2010
Under Johnson's leadership, Fidelity popularizes the mutual funds that bring millions of small investors into the stock market, in time for the 12-year bull run that adds more than $1 trillion to the national wealth.
From Time Magazine Archive
On the other hand, the man who plods with scientific details should not look with contempt upon the man who popularizes the results of technical study by giving it an attractive literary setting.
From Our Bird Comrades by Leander S. (Leander Sylvester) Keyser
The startup Pickle on Thursday joined the agent craze with a “personal AI you raise,” a concept popularized by Tamagotchis in the 1990s.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 3, 2026
Thought leader Eliezer Yudkowsky, who originally popularized safety concerns about AI, initially believed that AI would be friendly but has since adopted the view that AI could lead to human extinction.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
The “forward-deployed engineer” model, popularized by Palantir, has become the go-to answer for turning AI investments into real business results, with OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft and AWS all rolling out similar programs recently.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
It was first popularized in the 1970s by an American researcher who noticed how people ate and lived in parts of Italy and Greece.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 16, 2026
Even Voltaire, who avoided the dialogue between a philosopher and a lady, a form popularized by Fontenelle, liked to imagine his book being read by a sophisticated woman at her dressing table.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
It’s easy to adore the star in the mid-to-late 1950s when he’s young and svelte, scandalizing and delighting America with his wiggly hips, popularizing a new sound dubbed rock ‘n’ roll.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 24, 2026
The progressive pollster Sean McElwee became a minor celebrity for popularizing the phrase.
From Slate ● Jan. 12, 2026
Meanwhile, the investment firm Vanguard has been credited with popularizing low-cost and diversified index funds.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 15, 2025
Like it or not, fashion has become a key vehicle for popularizing art and design history.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2025
Borel was followed by two other works of popularizing science.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
