medicalize
/ˈmɛdɪkəlaɪz/
medicalize verb: to make medical; to convert or reduce to a branch of medicine; especially, to pathologize.
Verb
medicalize (third-person singular simple present medicalizes, present participle medicalizing, simple past and past participle medicalized)
- To make medical; to convert or reduce to a branch of medicine; especially, to pathologize.
- The sexual objectification and violation of women is made invisible because technological reproduction has turned medicalized pornography into education […]1996, Dion Farquhar, The Other Machine: Discourse and Reproductive Technologies
- Early in this century American obstetrics became committed to a path that has led to a highly medicalized approach to the care of women during pregnancy […]1999, Judith Rooks, Charles S Mahan, Midwifery and Childbirth
Forms of medicalize
| third-person singular present | medicalizes |
|---|---|
| present participle | medicalizing |
| past participle | medicalized |
| past | medicalized |
| alternative form | medicalise |
Origin of medicalize
From medical + -ize.
Words formed from medicalize
Questions about medicalize
- What does medicalize mean?
- Medicalize means to make medical; to convert or reduce to a branch of medicine; especially, to pathologize.
- What part of speech is medicalize?
- Medicalize is a verb.
- How do you pronounce medicalize?
- Medicalize is pronounced /ˈmɛdɪkəlaɪz/.
- What is the past tense of medicalize?
- The past tense of medicalize is medicalized.
Words near medicalize in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: medicalize (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-medicalize.wav.
Cite this entry: “medicalize.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/medicalize. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.