civilize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
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to bring out of savagery or barbarism into a state characteristic of civilization
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to refine, educate, or enlighten
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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civilizernoun
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overcivilizeverb
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decivilizeverb (used with object)
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uncivilizeverb (used with object)
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civilizableadjective
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civilizatoryadjective
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noncivilizableadjective
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uncivilizableadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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civilizesimple
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civilizessimple
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have civilizedperfect
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has civilizedperfect
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am civilizingprogressive
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are civilizingprogressive
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is civilizingprogressive
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have been civilizingperfect progressive
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has been civilizingperfect progressive
Past
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civilizedsimple
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had civilizedperfect
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was civilizingprogressive
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were civilizingprogressive
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had been civilizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of civilize
Explanation
To civilize is to make someone or something more tame or refined, and less wild. You might try to civilize your younger brother by teaching him some table manners. You can attempt to civilize your crazy dog, so you can invite people over without having her jump on them and chew on their shoes. You can also civilize a person by teaching them to be more sophisticated or tasteful: "My aunt tried to civilize me by taking me to museums and ballets, but I preferred watching professional wrestling on TV." The Latin word civilis is at the root of civilized, meaning "befitting a citizen" or "courteous."
Vocabulary lists containing civilize
We the People: Civ
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List 4
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All My Sons
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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:
In “Panorama,” two dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet, Guillaume Diop and Germain Louvet, and one from the cabaret world, Soa de Muse, attempt to civilize the mural in reverse.
From New York Times ● Nov. 16, 2022
By the fifth century BCE, some of the larger villages of Macedon grew big enough to be considered cities, and elite Macedonians made efforts to civilize their country in the style of the southern Greeks.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020
Without dogs, human beings would not have been able to civilize, as they did.
From Salon ● Nov. 10, 2019
But their aim is the same: to drag resplendent nature indoors to hyperbolize and civilize its beauty.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2018
"What happened to 'aye'?" "I'm trying to civilize me speech—my speech."
From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood
We sense early on, from Mortensen’s delicate handling of their courtship, that this isn’t some musty rehash of the trope where she civilizes him and he domesticates her.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2024
But there she is, one of the immortal characters of literature, and how can you not fall in love with somebody who civilizes savage people by telling them stories?
From New York Times ● Sep. 4, 2015
Far from revealing our barbarism, fighting civilizes us, Gottschall writes.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 15, 2015
It opened up a discussion about anonymity, pseudonymity and whether using real names civilizes the Internet.
From Forbes ● Oct. 15, 2012
It is she who pre-eminently stimulates the voyage, and plants the colony, and establishes the commerce, and civilizes the people.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 341, March, 1844 by Various
This is a civilized world we live in now.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
You would respect the movie more if it stuck with its depraved indifference to civilized behavior, rather than attempting a death-bed conversion to decency.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Its credo was “a rejection of powerlessness and the creation of conditions for civilized behavior. We are not overmatched by the problems we face.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. said External link “taxes are what we pay for civilized society,” suggesting we get what we pay for.
From Barron's ● Apr. 14, 2026
Despite his first, the study of English literature seemed in retrospect an absorbing parlor game, and reading books and having opinions about them, the desirable adjunct to a civilized existence.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
Heaney was born with a subject he often resisted, and “Digging” turns away from violence to the civilizing necessity of work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
Colonialism, once equated by the West with civilizing progress, became synonymous with iniquity.
From New York Times ● Dec. 10, 2023
One might guess that the civilizing influence of Boomtown would form the arc of the season.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2023
The French called this aspect of imperialism “the civilizing mission.”
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
But then, it seemed as if the Indians had been helpful to the settlers as well, so I didn’t see why they needed civilizing.
From "It All Comes Down to This" by Karen English
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.
