sterilize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to destroy microorganisms in or on, usually by bringing to a high temperature with steam, dry heat, or boiling liquid.
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to destroy the ability of (a person or animal) to reproduce by removing the sexual organs or inhibiting their functions.
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to make (land) barren or unproductive.
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Informal. to delete or remove anything comprising or damaging from.
to sterilize a government document before releasing it to the press.
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Informal. to isolate or completely protect from unwanted, unauthorized, or unwholesome activities, attitudes, influences, etc..
You can't sterilize children against violence.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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sterilizabilitynoun
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sterilizernoun
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presterilizeverb (used with object)
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resterilizeverb (used with object)
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self-sterilizedadjective
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sterilizableadjective
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unsterilizedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sterilizesimple
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sterilizessimple
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have sterilizedperfect
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has sterilizedperfect
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am sterilizingprogressive
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are sterilizingprogressive
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is sterilizingprogressive
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have been sterilizingperfect progressive
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has been sterilizingperfect progressive
Past
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sterilizedsimple
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had sterilizedperfect
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was sterilizingprogressive
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were sterilizingprogressive
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had been sterilizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sterilize
Explanation
When you sterilize something, you make it completely clean and free from any contaminant. It's important to sterilize tools, hands, and furniture in hospitals so germs don't get spread between patients. People who make their own jam and pickles need to sterilize the jars first, and when you feed a tiny baby it's important to sterilize the bottles. Whenever you need to make sure something is as clean as possible, you should sterilize it. The earliest meaning of sterilize is still in use, too: to "make infertile," or to make it impossible for an organism to reproduce or have a baby.
Vocabulary lists containing sterilize
Everything, Everything
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Z for Zachariah
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This Week In Words: Current Events Vocab for January 16–22, 2021
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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:
We press that mash, sterilize it by heating, bottle it and ship it out.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
Kluh’s district uses X-rays to sterilize males but there are other methods, such as using genetically modified insects or ones infected with bacteria.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2026
Hospitals use it to sterilize medical devices, and some municipalities use low levels to treat public water supplies.
From Salon ● Dec. 15, 2025
I told her to try to sterilize the water, and she responded that she does not have enough cooking gas and cannot heat water more than once a day.
From Slate ● Oct. 22, 2024
But while her brother had managed to sterilize his memories, she had only managed to make hers more scalding.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
He noted that one machine his team is working on — a smart steamer that sterilizes soil — can be used near schools, where people don’t want “nasty chemical stuff.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2024
This innovative technology sterilizes the crops, promoting plant growth without the use of chemical fertilizers.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 27, 2024
Circulating at 380 degrees, this steam not only heats the buildings, saving the cost of bulky on-site boilers, but also sterilizes the hospitals’ surgical instruments.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 14, 2019
This transformation sterilizes the plant, while attracting the sap-sucking insects that carry the bacteria to new hosts.
From Scientific American ● Apr. 9, 2014
"She is simply mad on the subject of germs, and sterilizes or filters everything in the house."
From More Toasts by Mosher, Marion Dix
The agency also spearheaded the construction of fly-sterilization plants in Texas, which are designed to release sterilized New World screwworm flies into the wild and mitigate reproduction.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026
That means the fish aren’t sterilized by cooking before they are packaged and sealed.
From Salon ● May 28, 2026
Another group of eight aging mice served as controls and received sterilized fecal material instead.
From Science Daily ● May 9, 2026
One theory was that a specific piece of equipment—a drill that Acer used on all the patients—wasn’t properly sterilized.
From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2025
The hoosh pot was cleaned and scoured, filled with ice to melt, and once the water was boiling, the surgical instruments were sterilized.
From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong
For decades, the U.S. has maintained a program in which these flies are bred in a lab, bathed in sterilizing radiation and released around Panama, which prevents the insect from creeping northward.
From Salon ● Jun. 30, 2026
The most effective strategy involved sterilizing about 22% of adult female koalas each year in areas with the highest population densities rather than applying the approach across the entire region.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 8, 2026
She’s grateful that she had already secured a second job sterilizing medical equipment for 3,000 pesos a month at a nearby clinic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026
Because when doctors and dentists practiced universal precautions—like wearing gloves and properly sterilizing their equipment—there was almost no risk of HIV transmission.
From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2025
The obvious difficulties of sterilizing by radiation have led to search for an easier method of accomplishing similar results, and there is now a strongly running tide of interest in chemical sterilants.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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.
