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:
Sports columnist Bill Simmons, who helped popularize the format, recently moved his podcasts to the platform in January as part of a deal with Spotify.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2026
When Tesla announced its plans for the Semi nearly a decade ago, it was seen as a chance to change heavy-duty trucking just as its affordable and versatile Model 3 helped popularize electric cars.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 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
Early advertising campaigns helped popularize terms like "litterbug," while today the focus has shifted to "chemical recycling," promoted by industry as a way to break plastics down into their basic building blocks.
From Barron's ● Jan. 22, 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
In his old age he ruefully remarked that "ridicule does not kill, it popularizes."
From Time Magazine Archive
He not only popularizes and explains for the benefit of a larger public the substance and significance of admirable special performance, but he should in a sense become the standard bearer of the whole movement.
From The Promise of American Life by Herbert David Croly
As the idea becomes “cringe,” creators who popularized it could resort to even more extreme behaviors to satisfy the algorithms, Taylor said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Its 2020 debut album, “PDE,” experimented more with the prickly, sad sierreño sound popularized by acts like Eslabon Armado and DannyLux — as well as trap-infused corridos tumbados with a thumping tololoche.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
Ranch dressing was pioneered in Alaska, popularized on a dude ranch in California and perfected by food scientists before it spread all over the nation and on every food imaginable.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
"Nothing excites Trump more than the power of saying 'you're fired,'" Litman said, referencing the catchphrase Trump popularized in his former role as a reality competition show host.
From Barron's ● Jul. 3, 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
The Apple TV series “Ted Lasso” is supposed to primarily be a wide-appealing comedy, yet its role in popularizing soccer in the U.S. can’t be dismissed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
In the present-day AI boom, OpenAI is generally credited with popularizing the MTS, Jayden Clark, the Silicon Valley culture commentator behind the viral X account @creatine_cycle, told MarketWatch.
From MarketWatch ● May 9, 2026
The progressive pollster Sean McElwee became a minor celebrity for popularizing the phrase.
From Slate ● Jan. 12, 2026
Starbucks repackaged Italy’s coffee ritual for American tastes, popularizing the iced coffee craze through its Frappuccinos.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2025
The software industry did the first by creating and popularizing a protocol known as SMTP—simple mail transfer protocol—which enabled the exchange of e-mail messages between heterogeneous computer systems.
From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman
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.
