sterilize
Americanverb (used with object)
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sterilizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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sterilized,
past participle, past
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sterilizing
present participle
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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
“In this case, it is possible that Cesium-137 food irradiators were used in the processing facilities which are being used to sterilize food and instruments,” Vetter said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2025
San Bernardino County officials have made new deals with a local nonprofit to help sterilize and relocate wild donkeys.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2025
The easiest way to kill off the tardigrades, the researchers argue, would be to sterilize the entire planet, adding 5.6 × 1026 J of energy to make the oceans boil off.
From Salon ● Feb. 25, 2025
The second option was to go into the building and sterilize the whole place.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
This innovative technology sterilizes the crops, promoting plant growth without the use of chemical fertilizers.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 27, 2024
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal/OSHA, is also investigating possible workplace health risks within the Vernon facility, which sterilizes more than 45 million essential medical devices and other items every year.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2022
It infects Xyris grass, sterilizes it and then produces uncanny mimics of the plant’s yellow flowers.
From Scientific American ● Dec. 27, 2021
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
If brain-work attracts, develops and sterilizes the best gemmules, the ultimate effect of education on the intellect of posterity may differ from its immediate effect.
From Are the Effects of Use and Disuse Inherited? An Examination of the View Held by Spencer and Darwin by W. P. (William Platt) Ball
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
All of his belongings, including his favorite blanket, were sterilized.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 2026
A handful of deer in Avalon, Catalina’s only city, will be sterilized and allowed to live out their days on the island.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 2026
Beginning in August 1954, screw-worms reared and sterilized in an Agriculture Department laboratory in Florida were flown to Curasao and released from airplanes at the rate of about 400 per square mile per week.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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
She chased away fishermen and was sued for sterilizing a neighbor’s goat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 28, 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.
