Word.ws English Dictionary

melanize

melanize verb: to convert into melanin, or to deposit melanin in.

Verb

melanize (third-person singular simple present melanizes, present participle melanizing, simple past and past participle melanized)

  1. (transitive) To convert into melanin, or to deposit melanin in.
    • At the extreme, the mosquito does not permit survival and transmission of the parasite: in genetically selected refractory mosquito strains, the parasites may be lysed as they traverse the midgut, or may be encapsulated and melanized at the early oocyst stage.1999 May 21, Jules A. Hoffmann et al., “Phylogenetic Perspectives in Innate Immunity”, in Science, volume 284, number 5418, →DOI, pages 1313–1318

Forms of melanize

third-person singular presentmelanizes
present participlemelanizing
past participlemelanized
pastmelanized
alternative formmelanise

Origin of melanize

From melanin + -ize.

Words formed from melanize

Questions about melanize

What does melanize mean?
Melanize means to convert into melanin, or to deposit melanin in.
What part of speech is melanize?
Melanize is a verb.
What is the past tense of melanize?
The past tense of melanize is melanized.

Words near melanize in the dictionary

  1. melanite
  2. melanites
  3. melanitic
  4. melanization
  5. melanizations
  6. melanize
  7. melanized
  8. melanizes
  9. melanizing
  10. melannein
  11. Melano

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: melanize (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: “melanize.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/melanize. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.