Word.ws English Dictionary

nationalise

nationalise is the non-Oxford British English standard spelling of nationalize.

Meaning of nationalize

Verb

nationalize (third-person singular simple present nationalizes, present participle nationalizing, simple past and past participle nationalized)

  1. (British, English, Oxford, US, rare) To make into, or to become, a nation.
    • Probably no Hindu who could make intelligent use of political freedom ever dreams of the present possibility of a nationalized India, […]1910, History for Ready Reference from the Best Historians, page 316
  2. (British, English, Oxford, US) To bring a private company, or an industry comprising such companies, under the control of a specific government.
    • Near-synonym: socialize
  3. (British, English, Oxford, US) To bring a concept such as a political issue or commercial campaign to the attention of the entire country.
  4. (British, English, Oxford, US) To change from having local and regional variation to being national in character and scope.
  5. (British, English, Oxford, US, archaic) To make national; to make a nation of; to endow with the character and habits of a nation, or the peculiar sentiments and attachment of citizens of a nation.

Forms of nationalise

third-person singular presentnationalises
present participlenationalising
past participlenationalised
pastnationalised

Origin of nationalise

From French nationaliser, equivalent to national + -ise.

Words formed from nationalise

Questions about nationalise

What is nationalise the non-Oxford British English standard spelling of?
Nationalise is the non-Oxford British English standard spelling of nationalize.

Words near nationalise in the dictionary

  1. national-type school
  2. national-type schools
  3. Nationalian
  4. nationalisation
  5. nationalisations
  6. nationalise
  7. nationalised
  8. nationaliser
  9. nationalisers
  10. nationalises
  11. nationalising

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nationalise (page history and authors); nationalize (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: “nationalise.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nationalise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.