professionalize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of professionalize
First recorded in 1855–60; professional + -ize
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:
Harfuch "sought to professionalize, to modernize the intelligence agency to go after crimes," said Gerardo Rodriguez, an academic expert in national security who met Harfuch in 2018.
From Barron's ● May 10, 2026
One of the efforts to professionalize the process is ICEList, a web database created by Dominick Skinner, an Irish activist based in the Netherlands.
From Slate ● Jan. 28, 2026
They hired Persy’s former babysitter, a graphic designer, to professionalize the designs and paid China-based Panda Games to manufacture the game.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
During his time in office, critics say López Obrador did little to professionalize Mexico’s municipal and state police forces, many of which have been accused of widespread corruption.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2024
Shawn wanted to professionalize the operation, to invest the profits from the Malad job in new equipment; Dad wanted things to stay the same.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
After World War II, the American military was more professionalized, and by the 1970s, the unpopularity of the Vietnam War made military school less appealing.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026
As U.S. foreign policy became more professionalized, some historians have argued, the role of overseeing and executing it became a better fit for capable administrators than aspiring presidents.
From Slate ● Apr. 6, 2026
Zahn wanted to convey the pressure college coaches face in the increasingly professionalized world of college football.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2025
So by the time they launched their foundation in 1966 — and even more by the time they professionalized it in 1977 — they were pretty experienced philanthropists.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 18, 2023
Could I run some sort of after-school program, a professionalized version of what I’d done for Czerny at Princeton?
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Backers, including venture capital investors and the YouTube star MrBeast, are now aiming to cash in by professionalizing the strategy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
But experts question whether her strategies — expanding community policing and professionalizing cops — would transfer to a national level.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 30, 2024
At what point does professionalizing our personal lives leech them of any spirit or spontaneity?
From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2023
In the seventeenth century, as its enemies grew stronger, the empire became more inward-looking, focusing less on external expansion and more on resolving domestic affairs, professionalizing its bureaucracy, and conducting internal reforms.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
In 1996, the government focused its attention on implementing an ambitious economic reform program and professionalizing its parliament.
From The 1999 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency
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.
