Word.ws English Dictionary

decriminalise

decriminalise is the non-Oxford British English standard spelling of decriminalize.

Meaning of decriminalize

Verb

decriminalize (third-person singular simple present decriminalizes, present participle decriminalizing, simple past and past participle decriminalized)

  1. (British, English, Oxford, US, transitive) To change the laws so something is no longer a crime.
    • The march to decriminalize drugs moved further across the nation on Tuesday despite continued federal prohibition.2020 April 11, Thomas Fuller, “Oregon Decriminalizes Small Amounts of Heroin and Cocaine; Four States Legalize Marijuana”, in The New York Times
    Synonyms:
    legalize
    Antonyms:
    criminalize

Forms of decriminalise

third-person singular presentdecriminalises
present participledecriminalising
past participledecriminalised
pastdecriminalised

Origin of decriminalise

From de- + criminalise.

Questions about decriminalise

What is decriminalise the non-Oxford British English standard spelling of?
Decriminalise is the non-Oxford British English standard spelling of decriminalize.

Words near decriminalise in the dictionary

  1. decries
  2. decrieth
  3. decrim
  4. decrime
  5. decriminalisation
  6. decriminalise
  7. decriminalised
  8. decriminalises
  9. decriminalising
  10. decriminalization
  11. decriminalize

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: decriminalise (page history and authors); decriminalize (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “decriminalise.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/decriminalise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.