revolutionize
Americanverb (used with object)
-
revolutionizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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revolutionized,
past participle, past
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revolutionizing
present participle
-
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
-
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
-
is revolutionizingprogressive
-
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:
The technology’s supporters say AI will revolutionize industries and drive a productivity boom that will power growth for years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Humanoid robots have the potential to revolutionize life as we know it, and robotics startups across the globe are trying to bring them to market as soon as possible.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026
Compare that to Mark Zuckerberg, a similarly self-aggrandizing figure who claims to be working on a project that will revolutionize art, commerce and the way that the average person engages with the world.
From Salon ● Sep. 4, 2026
The authors enthused that the partnership "showcased how innovative approaches, even involving unconventional collaborators, can revolutionize oceanographic research."
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
In the following decades this new understanding of space and time was to revolutionize our view of the universe.
From "A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking
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
This breakthrough method revolutionizes the estimation of gradients or derivatives of functions, a crucial step in many computational tasks.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2023
Jane Goodall, a young and untrained woman, challenges the male dominated scientific consensus of her time with her chimpanzee research and revolutionizes people’s understanding of the natural world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2020
The spread of Roman influence around the borders of the Mediterranean produced a tendency to homogeneous thought eminently dangerous to the many forms of faith professed by so many different people. and revolutionizes religious ideas.
From History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume I (of 2) Revised Edition by John William Draper
Ditka, who won two Super Bowls as a coach and one as a player, revolutionized the tight end position, transforming it from a primarily blocking-focused role to one that could pose a threat in receiving.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
With all the changes from AI, "the computer has to be revolutionized," Huang said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026
Schick revolutionized shaving with injector razors and multiblades in a single cartridge, slugging it out in the marketplace for decades with rival shaving giant Gillette.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 16, 2026
"GLP-1-based medications have revolutionized the therapy of obesity. We now have a very effective pharmacotherapy for achieving significant weight loss," Petersen says.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 29, 2026
In 1927 he made an improvement that revolutionized the building of racing shells in America.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
For the home cooks: OXO is best known for revolutionizing the salad spinner, but it has also redesigned the garlic press, the can opener, the vegetable peeler … the list goes on.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026
ChatGPT-style AI is revolutionizing the world of high-level math by quickly solving famous, long-unsolved problems that stumped experts for decades.
From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026
Inventor James Dyson is known for revolutionizing vacuum cleaners.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026
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
But Bertillonage was already being displaced by a more efficient method of identification that was revolutionizing the world of scientific detection: fingerprinting.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
