urbanize
Americanverb (used with object)
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urbanizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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urbanized,
past participle, past
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urbanizing
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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urbanizesimple
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urbanizessimple
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have urbanizedperfect
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has urbanizedperfect
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am urbanizingprogressive
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are urbanizingprogressive
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is urbanizingprogressive
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have been urbanizingperfect progressive
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has been urbanizingperfect progressive
Past
-
urbanizedsimple
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had urbanizedperfect
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was urbanizingprogressive
-
were urbanizingprogressive
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had been urbanizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of urbanize
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:
Emerging markets over the longterm will continue to urbanize along with rising incomes.
From Barron's ● Apr. 14, 2026
It was such an incredible moment to mobilize the whole country to urbanize.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
Many cities have pushed back, arguing that so many more homes will more rapidly urbanize their suburban communities.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2024
“How we urbanize is more important than how fast we urbanize,” said Suhasini Ayer, an architect whose mixed-use development in Auroville recently won a design award at the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow.
From New York Times ● Mar. 5, 2022
The urbanites had best not forget that the farmland which they desire to urbanize produces the food that keeps them alive.
From Down with the Cities by Tadashi Nakashima
“It’s a street that’s stuck in time” and that’s just now waking up as Burien urbanizes, said Councilmember Jimmy Matta, who lives near Chelsea Park.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 10, 2023
As Nigeria urbanizes, children’s help is not needed in fields; the extended families have broken down.
From New York Times ● Apr. 14, 2012
The island’s cities are dense and highly urbanized, making it easy for small stores to capture heavy foot traffic.
From Barron's ● Mar. 21, 2026
The country’s east is heavily urbanized, with a population density about 50 times that of Arctic Scandinavia and Finland, where every square mile houses on average five people.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 27, 2025
That’s far less than in more urbanized and wealthier counties in the state such as Richland, Greenville, and Beaufort.
From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2024
“These failing sites are located within urbanized areas of the watershed, likely reflecting higher bacteria levels from various sources such as animal waste and human activities,” the report states.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2024
Communication between southern Mexico and the Andes required either a sea voyage or else a long chain of overland contacts via the narrow, forested, never urbanized Isthmus of Darien.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
By 1850, more than 8% of the population lived in a top-20 city, driven largely by the urbanizing Northeast.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
The research found that WUI areas are expanding worldwide, especially in rapidly urbanizing regions in Africa.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 16, 2024
The losses, mostly driven by habitat destruction on the rapidly urbanizing continent, could prove catastrophic to ecosystem health.
From National Geographic ● Jan. 4, 2024
It reverberates in the bustle and thrum of the continent’s ballooning cities, their hectic streets jammed with new arrivals, that make Africa the most rapidly urbanizing continent on earth.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 29, 2023
If a man has no real love for country life, let him not blight the country school by his subtle urbanizing influence.
From The Challenge of the Country A Study of Country Life Opportunity by George Walter Fiske
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
