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relativize

[ rel-uh-tuh-vahyz ]
/ ˈrɛl ə təˌvaɪz /
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verb (used with object), rel·a·tiv·ized, rel·a·tiv·iz·ing.
to regard as or make relative.
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Also especially British, rel·a·tiv·ise .

Origin of relativize

First recorded in 1930–35; relative + -ize

OTHER WORDS FROM relativize

rel·a·tiv·i·za·tion, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use relativize in a sentence

  • India’s countless folk communities are in dire need of funding and technical and creative upskilling to relativize themselves in an increasingly globalized world.

    He Helps Folk Musicians Stay Alive|Daniel Malloy|October 9, 2020|Ozy
  • The full idiocy of conspiricism at its dreariest has thus been summoned to relativize the crime and, in so doing, deny it.

    Naming Europe’s New Anti-Semitism|Bernard-Henri Lévy|June 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST

British Dictionary definitions for relativize

relativize

relativise

/ (ˈrɛlətɪvaɪz) /

verb
to make or become relative
(tr) to apply the theory of relativity to

Derived forms of relativize

relativization or relativisation, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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