sanitize
Americanverb (used with object)
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sanitizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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sanitized,
past participle, past
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sanitizing
present participle
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to free from dirt, germs, etc., as by cleaning or sterilizing.
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to make less offensive by eliminating anything unwholesome, objectionable, incriminating, etc..
to sanitize a document before releasing it to the press.
verb
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to make sanitary or hygienic, as by sterilizing
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to omit unpleasant details from (a news report, document, etc) to make it more palatable to the recipients
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sanitizesimple
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sanitizessimple
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have sanitizedperfect
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has sanitizedperfect
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am sanitizingprogressive
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are sanitizingprogressive
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is sanitizingprogressive
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have been sanitizingperfect progressive
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has been sanitizingperfect progressive
Past
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sanitizedsimple
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had sanitizedperfect
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was sanitizingprogressive
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were sanitizingprogressive
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had been sanitizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sanitize
First recorded in 1830–40; sanit(ary) + -ize
Explanation
To sanitize something is to make it extremely clean. After watching you play with your slobbery dog, your fastidious friend might insist that you sanitize your hands before sitting down to dinner. When you clean or sterilize something, particularly for reasons of good health (like not spreading germs), you can say that you sanitize it. You can also use this verb in a figurative way, whenever you "clean" something: "She doesn't want to risk alienating her audience, so she sanitizes her speech to remove anything that might offend them." The Latin root is sanitas, "health."
Vocabulary lists containing sanitize
Unit 3: Compelling Evidence
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Turtles All the Way Down
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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:
Her concurrence also refuses to sanitize Reconstruction into an abstract legal debate.
From Slate ● Jul. 2, 2026
Mr. Paré-Poupart doesn’t ever sanitize his job, and his book is replete with descriptions of how unappealing its conditions and circumstances are.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
“I think it was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize accurate reporting,” Alfonsi told the New York Times of her firing.
From Salon ● Jun. 1, 2026
“Broadcasters should not feel pressured to water down, sanitize, or avoid critical coverage out of fear of regulatory retaliation.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 21, 2026
We don’t even have time to talk except catering-teamwork talk, so while we wash and sanitize big pots and pans, she occasionally hip-bumps me and I hip-bump her back.
From "Ask the Passengers" by A.S. King
Roughly the size of a microwave, the device sanitizes water using UV light to kill harmful bacteria, viruses and molds.
From Salon ● Dec. 24, 2024
“Using a smartphone application sanitizes things and makes it feel like it’s safe and unbiased,” said Ari Sawyer, a border researcher for Human Rights Watch.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2024
It cleans its contaminated sewage with an anaerobic reactor that sanitizes by biological means.
From New York Times ● Dec. 21, 2021
She hired an assistant who sanitizes the tables, outdoor bathroom and shower, and backwashes the pool between events.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 16, 2021
RIGHT: Williams, 30, sanitizes her hospital identification card, part of her extensive cleaning routine.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 21, 2020
Workers have cleared out and sanitized the eastern freezer, which was largely destroyed in the fire and filled with spoiled food and charred debris.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
Other presidents have also sometimes behaved contrary to democratic ideals, and national memorials often present a more sanitized version of American history.
From Slate ● May 18, 2026
Unfortunately, sanitized politicians have this shortcoming—they are not quite as interesting on stage as Attila the Hun or Boris Godunov.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026
The county health services inspection report said that for the stand to reopen, rodent activity must be eliminated and equipment surfaces, food containers, shelves and floors must be cleaned and sanitized.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2026
By the time Sean was found and sanitized, the game was over.
From "In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson" by Bette Bao Lord
“We see them as intellectualizing or sanitizing radical-right ideas that are then taken up by the parties in power,” said Allchorn, the U.K. extremism expert.
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2026
What kind of satire does so much sanitizing?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
Years ago, Douthat might have been accused of sanitizing the figures who appear on his podcast or of providing intellectual cover to the legitimately unhinged.
From Slate ● Oct. 7, 2025
Making things worse, listeria can spread easily if food comes into contact with contaminated surfaces and multiply rapidly despite aggressive cleaning and sanitizing, according to the USDA.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2024
He didn’t notice that they’d gone through another set of sliding glass doors until the puff of sanitizing air hit his skin again.
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
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.
