commodify

American  

[kuh-mod-uh-fahy] / kəˈmɒd əˌfaɪ /

Also commoditize

verb (used with object)

commodified, commodifying

1. to turn into a commodity; make commercial.

2. to treat as if a commodity.

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commodify British  

/ kəˈmɒdɪˌfaɪ /

verb

1. (tr) to treat (something) inappropriately as if it can be acquired or marketed like other commodities

   you can't commodify art

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Other Word Forms

• commodification
  noun
• commodifiable
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of commodify

First recorded in 1975–80; commod(ity) ( def. ) + -ify ( def. )

Explanation

If your friend was charging you money to hang out with him, he would be trying to commodify your relationship, which means "turn into an opportunity to make money." Commodify comes from commodity, which often means "an item that can be bought and sold for money," plus the suffix -ify which is usually used to mean "make or turn into." So this word means "to make or turn into something that can be bought and sold for money." This term is often used in a disapproving way to imply that whatever is being commodified shouldn't be, maybe because it's special or private.

Example Sentences

But those harms haven’t been proved and, as the majority notes, third parties “are free to petition EPA to modify, suspend, or cancel a pesticide’s registration.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 25, 2026

And within days, a mathematician at Princeton, Will Sawin, used good old-fashioned human understanding to modify ChatGPT’s construction to get an even better one.

From Slate • Jun. 22, 2026

Now that scientists better understand how to modify these materials, researchers say additional work is needed to improve their stability, predict their behavior more accurately, and evaluate their performance in real-world technologies.

From Science Daily • May 22, 2026

The solution would be either a cost-cap allowance to modify the chassis to accept larger tanks, or slightly shorter races.

From BBC • May 14, 2026

The psychologist muttered, “I should have been told. U. S. Robots had no right to modify positronic brains this way without the approval of a psychologist.”

From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov