revolutionize
Americanverb (used with object)
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revolutionizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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revolutionized,
past participle, past
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revolutionizing
present participle
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to bring about a revolution in; effect a radical change in.
to revolutionize petroleum refining methods.
-
to subject to a political revolution.
verb
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to bring about a radical change in
science has revolutionized civilization
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to inspire or infect with revolutionary ideas
they revolutionized the common soldiers
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to cause a revolution in (a country, etc)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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revolutionizesimple
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revolutionizessimple
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have revolutionizedperfect
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has revolutionizedperfect
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am revolutionizingprogressive
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are revolutionizingprogressive
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is revolutionizingprogressive
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have been revolutionizingperfect progressive
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has been revolutionizingperfect progressive
Past
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revolutionizedsimple
-
had revolutionizedperfect
-
was revolutionizingprogressive
-
were revolutionizingprogressive
-
had been revolutionizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of revolutionize
First recorded in 1790–1800; revolution + -ize
Explanation
Revolutionize, a verb, means "to make a major change," like in the 1990s, when the Internet revolutionized how people communicated, got information and even did their jobs. Things were never the same again. Use revolutionize to describe something that is completely transformed. Originally, it meant "to bring about sweeping political change," like people who band together and fight to revolutionize a nation, with the end result being a new party in power or new philosophies about things like land ownership or tax collection put in place. In time, it also came to mean even nonpolitical change, like the digital music player, which revolutionized how people get and listen to music.
Vocabulary lists containing revolutionize
100 SAT words Beginning with "R"
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"Remarks at the Dedication of the Aerospace Medical Health Center" by John F. Kennedy
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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:
"Altermagnets could completely revolutionize the way we transport information, but to confirm if this elegant theory is true, we need experiments that identify altermagnets and confirm they behave the way scientists predict."
From Science Daily ● Jun. 23, 2026
The wine-country startup wanted to revolutionize the cultivation of grapes and other fruit with $100,000 robotractors, but the technology didn’t work well enough.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2026
These tests are “a ground breaking technology which is going to revolutionize cancer care across the board,” says Dr. Joyce A. O’Shaughnessy, chair, breast cancer research at the Baylor Scott & White Sammons Cancer Center.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026
SpaceX pioneered reusable rockets and built Starlink, a space-based broadband service poised to revolutionize mobile connectivity.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
Later on, lithium would revolutionize the treatment of bipolar disorder, but the drug would not be licensed in the United States until 1970.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
"This research revolutionizes our understanding of the jugal bone in snake and non-snake lizards," said Michael Caldwell, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and a co-author on the study.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2026
Maybe that’s the real magic of a tool like this: not that it revolutionizes your cooking, but that it makes the most ordinary meal feel new again.
From Salon ● Aug. 19, 2025
Their solution: Negotiate a settlement with the plaintiffs that revolutionizes college sports by requiring the major football-playing schools to share roughly $20 million annually with athletes.
From Seattle Times ● May 20, 2024
May 2001: Coca-Cola revolutionizes portable music listening with the introduction of the CokePod.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2020
Bah! the mere existence of such creatures revolutionizes Darwin's theory—argues the survival of the unfittest.
From Brann the Iconoclast — Volume 12 by William Cowper Brann
So, no AI hasn’t totally revolutionized Albertsons’ bottom or top lines quite yet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
While Brooks served his life sentence, the criminal justice system was being revolutionized through the introduction of DNA evidence and, with it, proof that innocent people had been convicted.
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026
In his nearly three decades at Apple, Tim Cook completely revolutionized the company’s supply chain and guided the company through tariffs, pandemic shutdowns and other obstacles.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 2026
Erbstein revolutionized soccer in Italy before dying in 1949, along with the entire Torino team, when their plane crashed into a hilltop outside Turin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2026
They were responsible for social changes that not only revolutionized life in America when they took place but are very much with us today.
From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler
Cue, who has been credited with revolutionizing Apple's services sector, was recognized this week as the Entertainment Person of the Year at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026
With drones revolutionizing the battlefield in Ukraine, Iran and beyond, the U.S. is striving to dominate this latest evolution in military technology the way it has with previous wartime innovations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 2026
"For all the talk about how AI is revolutionizing science, there are very few examples where something fundamentally new has been found directly by an AI system," Nemenman says.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 23, 2026
There’s been rapid progress in new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, that is revolutionizing the world economy.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 30, 2026
By that time, carbon dating was already revolutionizing archaeology.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
