vulcanize
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to treat (rubber) with sulfur and heat, thereby imparting strength, greater elasticity, durability, etc.
-
to subject (a substance other than rubber) to some analogous process, as to harden it.
verb
-
to treat (rubber) with sulphur or sulphur compounds under heat and pressure to improve elasticity and strength or to produce a hard substance such as vulcanite
-
to treat (substances other than rubber) by a similar process in order to improve their properties
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of vulcanize
Explanation
To vulcanize is to submit rubber to a process that makes it hard. Charles Goodyear, whose name is synonymous with car tires, first developed the method used to vulcanize rubber. If it weren't for the ability to vulcanize rubber, a process that involves using chemicals to strengthen it, our lives would look very different than they do. We use this hardened rubber in objects including the tires on our cars, rubber hoses, the soles of our shoes, and those red rubber balls we use to play kickball. Before it came to describe this process, vulcanize meant "put into flames," from the Roman god of fire, Vulcan.
Vocabulary lists containing vulcanize
2015 Spelling Bee - Words from Round 2
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
The Industrial Revolution - Middle School and High School
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
The Best at It
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Sulfuric acid is used to produce phosphate fertilizers, leach copper and other metals from rock, pulp wood, pickle steel, tan leather and vulcanize rubber.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026
Liquid latex currently takes two to three minutes to vulcanize, making it impractical.
From Time Magazine Archive
The key to its tire-making properties is a new curing agent that makes it possible to vulcanize Plioflex.
From Time Magazine Archive
On every student's desk at Edgewood hangs a brand-new gas mask, product of a factory on the reservation where 2,000 women workers hem, stitch and vulcanize masks for the expanding Army.
From Time Magazine Archive
The verb vulcanize means “to strengthen a material such as rubber by combining it with sulfur and then applying heat and pressure.”
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
Bubble Wrap, vulcanized rubber and Post-it Notes also emerged when inventors recognized potential in unexpected outcomes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026
The company, which was founded in Cologne, Germany, in 1898, has seen several evolutions in its designs, with suitcases made of leather, wood, aluminum and vulcanized fiber.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2025
The purple pieces of vulcanized rubber track being produced at a factory in northern Italy will be run on by the world’s fastest athletes at the Paris Olympics.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 14, 2024
In 1887, Scottish-born inventor John Boyd Dunlop made a pressurized air-filled pneumatic tire from vulcanized rubber, just in time for use by bicycle and automobile manufacturers.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
As per training, she checked the gauge before tugging the vulcanized cowl.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
These include 5-15% chemical additives, which comprise hundreds of substances, for example antioxidants, antiozonants, vulcanizing agents, anti-aging agents and many more, to enable the hig-tech performance of a modern tire.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 5, 2024
Polymerization of the chloroprene had resulted in a sub stance similar to the product obtained by vulcanizing rubber with sulphur.
From Time Magazine Archive
Finally he collapsed completely from the effects of a large and mysterious wound and was removed for a quick vulcanizing job.
From Time Magazine Archive
By vulcanizing a thin strip of rubber to tire sidewalls, the company turns out such hues as robin's-egg blue or Hollywood yellow.
From Time Magazine Archive
The first thing that he made here was shoes, and he used his own house for grinding room, calender room, and vulcanizing department, and his wife and children helped to make up the goods.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 787, January 31, 1891 by Various
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.
