verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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hypervitalizationnoun
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subvitalizationnoun
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vitalizationnoun
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vitalizernoun
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hypervitalizeverb (used with object)
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nonvitalizedadjective
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subvitalizedadjective
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undervitalizedadjective
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unvitalizedadjective
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unvitalizingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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vitalizesimple
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vitalizessimple
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have vitalizedperfect
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has vitalizedperfect
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am vitalizingprogressive
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are vitalizingprogressive
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is vitalizingprogressive
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have been vitalizingperfect progressive
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has been vitalizingperfect progressive
Past
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vitalizedsimple
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had vitalizedperfect
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was vitalizingprogressive
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were vitalizingprogressive
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had been vitalizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of vitalize
Explanation
To vitalize is to enliven or excite. There's nothing like a good night's sleep to vitalize a tired child. You can use the verb vitalize to describe what happens when you become energized or perked up: "My tai chi class isn't great exercise, but it does vitalize me." A much more common, and related, word is revitalize. For some reason, vitalize is rarely used, although it's much older, first used in the 1670's, while revitalize didn't come into use until 1858 — almost two hundred years later.
Vocabulary lists containing vitalize
Harry Truman's Inauguration Address
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Lyndon B. Johnson's 1963 Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress, List 1
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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:
When Goodman tackles a new project, her first priority is to “depave the landscape” so water and air can nourish plant roots and vitalize soil microbes.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 13, 2024
Smith added, “She takes class apart, she has a clear eye across the traditions that skewer us or vitalize us.”
From New York Times ● Oct. 29, 2021
These two elements of the American Revolution, the sovereignty of law and the dream of liberty, vitalize each other.
From Salon ● Feb. 17, 2020
As a conspicuously civilized state, it seeks to vitalize the charter with the concept of justice.
From Time Magazine Archive
The true distribution would require that each man should possess what goods he could animate and vitalize.
From Atlantic Classics by Various
He weaves together newly discovered nuggets and a polished perspective that vitalizes a twin biography of two people who were closer together and farther apart than most readers might remember.
From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2018
But Carax vitalizes the film with images that sparkle, smolder, catch fire; he might be offering Michele a last visual banquet before her eyes close forever.
From Time Magazine Archive
The outlines of Author Pratt's story are familiar to every schoolboy, but he vitalizes it with many a contemporary detail.
From Time Magazine Archive
The simple or stubborn confidence that leads to all-conquering effort, this is faith, the vision that vitalizes.
From Levels of Living Essays on Everyday Ideals by Henry Frederick Cope
It vitalizes school work, and receiving the pupil from the school, the library continues his education throughout life.
From Why do we need a public library? Material for a library campaign by Various
The value of redeveloping Union Station is not in creating a “modern, vitalized facility” from scratch, as the renderings suggest.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 23, 2022
And before you know it, the whole neighborhood is vitalized.
From Slate ● Jun. 6, 2017
The Financial Times’s Jackie Wullschlager countered, “Although neither definitive nor offering new insights, this show is a very good recapitulation of how Picasso as a god of forms vitalized portraiture after photography.”
From New York Times ● Oct. 19, 2016
For many supporters, the thrill of electing him has faded, and the idealism that once vitalized them has given way to disillusionment.
From BusinessWeek ● Jun. 14, 2012
My horror and fright went far beyond the paralyzing form; they ran a sort of madness into my blood and vitalized me into desperate instant action.
From International Short Stories English by Various
Witness the vitalizing imaginative energy director Lin-Manuel Miranda brings to “Tick, Tick … Boom!,” an artist-finding-his-footing musical by Jonathan Larson that onstage can come across as rather twee.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 18, 2022
Japan's State Minister in charge of vitalizing local economies Kozo Yamamoto speaks in Tokyo, Japan, August 3, 2016.
From Reuters ● Oct. 14, 2021
"I May Destroy You" is the artist ascending to the next level by mixing comedy and pain together in a strange, harrowing, and vitalizing soup.
From Salon ● Jun. 7, 2020
None of these institutions could have functioned without the vitalizing power of public opinion.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 13, 2016
The robot awaited only the vitalizing flash of high-voltage electricity, and Powell paused with his hand on the switch.
From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
