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Synonyms

universalize

American  
[yoo-nuh-vur-suh-lahyz] / ˌju nəˈvɜr səˌlaɪz /
especially British, universalise

verb (used with object)

universalized, universalizing
  1. to make universal.


universalize British  
/ ˌjuːnɪˈvɜːsəˌlaɪz /

verb

  1. (tr) to make universal

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of universalize

First recorded in 1635–45; universal + -ize

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:

But once you universalize your action—and all nonstudents begin to lie—the bookseller will catch on and likely begin to ask for identification.

From Textbooks Jun. 15, 2022

This overhaul will, presumably, continue to universalize the Apple enthusiast’s experience across devices, especially in tandem with new continuity-focused features like Universal Control.

From The Verge Jun. 6, 2022

In “Telescope,” Alameddine attempts to universalize Mina’s experience on Lesbos, but not out of a callow urge to suggest that her dilemmas — or yours — are comparable to the Syrians’.

From Los Angeles Times Sep. 13, 2021

In each album, the artist is able to universalize her struggles without giving away all of the personal details.

From Salon Jul. 5, 2021

The Redeemers who overthrew Reconstruction were inclined to retain such segregation practices as had already emerged, but they displayed no apparent disposition to expand or universalize the system.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander

In both, a universalized norm gets displayed, yet it’s simultaneously individualized.

From Los Angeles Times Nov. 25, 2025

Having just written an entire article about the dangers of universalized single-cause explanations, though, I would be remiss in putting the blame for dysfunction and discontent entirely on the media.

From Slate Dec. 19, 2024

Kirsten Scheid, the show’s curator, argues that creators the world over universalized the tradition and expanded upon it.

From New York Times Dec. 14, 2023

“Mr. Brook, synthesizing all his previous theatrical inventions, did nothing less than attempt to transform Hindu myth into universalized art, accessible to any culture,” theater critic and journalist Margaret Croyden wrote in the Times.

From Washington Post Jul. 5, 2022

The criminologic laboratory as an adjunct to the court of justice, like that associated with the court of Chief Justice Olson in Chicago, remains to be universalized.

From The Glands Regulating Personality by Berman, Louis, M.D.

It’s the kind of work that you expect to find at a show as noteworthy as the Biennial—powerful, universalizing, transportive—but one that this year is largely an exception to the other items on view.

From The Wall Street Journal Mar. 6, 2026

I think we need to get back to improving and universalizing high-quality developmental experiences for kids who are raised in stable, well-resourced families.

From Washington Post Jun. 13, 2021

Just as television has been a powerful force in the popularization of pro football, it has been irreplaceable in the universalizing of the draft.

From Seattle Times Apr. 23, 2019

Norton’s apparent belief to the contrary—that complicated people are best evaluated with a simple and universalizing ambivalence— would not, for an ideal newspaper, be among the traits sought in a hire tasked with analyzing “power.”

From Slate Feb. 13, 2018

The former Realism and Nominalism were lifted into a higher phase by the principle of the universalizing action of intellect—Intellectus in formis agit universalitatem.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 3 "Apollodorus" to "Aral" by Various

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