radicalization

American  

[rad-i-kuh-luh-zey-shuhn] / ˌræd ɪ kə ləˈzeɪ ʃən /

especially British, radicalisation

noun

1. the act or process of becoming more extreme, as in beliefs, actions, or politics.

   The group tries to counter radicalization by promoting nonviolence and tolerance through peer-to-peer education.

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Etymology

Origin of radicalization

radical ( def. ) + -ization ( def. )

Explanation

The process of a person's views becoming more and more extreme is radicalization. Terrorism is one result of religious or political radicalization. Radicalization pushes people to one end or another of the political spectrum, or to an extreme or strict version of a religion. While this can have good or bad consequences (revolutions and social change often require radical action), the noun radicalization is frequently used in a negative way, to describe beliefs that lead to violent extremism. The Latin root of radicalization means "root," from the sense of "change from the roots."

Example Sentences

There is normal teenage rebellion, and there is radicalization, and sometimes it’s really hard to distinguish between the two, Dehghani said.

From Los Angeles Times • May 23, 2026

Flavio Rolim, head of the police's cyber hate crime unit, told AFP that while not everyone consuming this kind of content turns to violence, there was a "process of radicalization," of men.

From Barron's • Apr. 9, 2026

Instead, what they reliably create is destruction, and destruction generates its own dynamics: rallying among the population, power vacuums, radicalization and cycles of retaliation.

From Salon • Mar. 4, 2026

Occasionally, too, the process of radicalization became evident.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 3, 2025

With a group of men, silent as himself, he worked at the radicalization of the factories and labor unions.

From Erik Dorn by Hecht, Ben