sanitizer
Americannoun
Usage
What does sanitizer mean? Sanitizer is a substance or fluid designed to kill germs on skin and objects. To sanitize means to clean something by removing the dirt or destroying the germs on it. Food service operations use sanitizer to clean their equipment so that food doesn’t become contaminated with bacteria or other stuff that shouldn’t be in it. Sanitizer also refers to household products (especially hand sanitizer) that are used to prevent the spread of disease by killing germs on surfaces and skin. Example: We use industrial-grade sanitizer in the restaurant kitchen to keep our equipment free of germs.
Etymology
Origin of sanitizer
Explanation
Sanitizer is a product that's used to make something extremely clean. Using hand sanitizer is one good way to help keep germs from spreading. Sanitizer doesn't just clean, it sanitizes, or kills viruses and bacteria. Both words come from sanitary and its Latin root, sanitas, which means "health." If you're cleaning a kitchen or bathroom, you might want to use a sanitizer spray on germy surfaces, and when you can't wash your hands with soap and water, hand sanitizer is the way to go!
Vocabulary lists containing sanitizer
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.
Hand sanitizer, folders, perfume, a pair of black leggings.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 5, 2026
Though the fire was eventually put out, large amounts of soggy, charred debris and hand sanitizer remained all around the warehouse, according to court documents.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 7, 2026
“Even though she was using it to store dried mango and sanitizer wipes for her toddler, it still looked effortlessly cool,” she said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 3, 2026
Let’s go back to spending all day walking around the mall with our Starbucks Frappuccinos and Aeropostale bags, comparing who had the coolest hand sanitizer chain or the sugariest, sweetest, most headache-inducing scent.
From Salon • Aug. 12, 2025
I took off the Band-Aid, applied hand sanitizer, reapplied a Band-Aid.
From "Turtles All the Way Down" by John Green
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.
