Word.ws English Dictionary

paralyze

/ˈpæɹəlaɪz/US/ˈpæɹəˌlaɪz/

paralyze verb: to afflict with paralysis.

Verb

paralyze (third-person singular simple present paralyzes, present participle paralyzing, simple past and past participle paralyzed)

  1. (transitive) To afflict with paralysis.
  2. (transitive) To render unable to move; to immobilize.
    • So I stood alone in horror / Paralyzed with fear and dread / When a voice dead and inhuman / Whispered to me "go, you fool, Warren's dead!"2006, The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, “Harley Got Devoured by the Undead”, in An Even Scarier Solstice
  3. (transitive) To render unable to function properly.
    • The transport strike paralyzed the city.

paralyze meaning in Arabic

paralyze in Arabic

to afflict with paralysis
أَشَلَّ ʔašalla

Examples of paralyze in a sentence

  • The snake's paralyzing venom prevented the mouse from escaping.
  • It's a fairly paralyzing time to be a guilty white American liberal.
  • I’d shunted away the knowledge—paralyzing, if you let it in—that stepping on an airplane is an extraordinary act of trust.

All 12 example sentences with paralyze

Forms of paralyze

third-person singular presentparalyzes
present participleparalyzing
past participleparalyzed
pastparalyzed
alternative formparalyse

Past tense of paralyze: paralyzed

Origin of paralyze

Partly a borrowing from French. Probably partly either (i) formed within English, by derivation. Or partly (ii) a borrowing from French, combined with an English element. Etymons: Middle English paralysie, -ize suffix; French paralyser.

Words formed from paralyze

Questions about paralyze

What does paralyze mean?
Paralyze means to afflict with paralysis.
What is paralyze in Arabic?
Paralyze in Arabic is أَشَلَّ (ʔašalla). See Paralyze meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is paralyze?
Paralyze is a verb.
How do you pronounce paralyze?
Paralyze is pronounced /ˈpæɹəlaɪz/ (UK).
What is the past tense of paralyze?
The past tense of paralyze is paralyzed.

Words near paralyze in the dictionary

  1. paralyzable
  2. paralyzant
  3. paralyzants
  4. paralyzation
  5. paralyzations
  6. paralyze
  7. paralyzed
  8. paralyzedly
  9. paralyzer
  10. paralyzers
  11. paralyzes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: paralyze (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-paralyze.wav.

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