Word.ws English Dictionary

racialize

racialize verb: to categorize or treat in racial terms.

Verb

racialize (third-person singular simple present racializes, present participle racializing, simple past and past participle racialized)

  1. To categorize or treat in racial terms.
    • There’s a growing consensus that a large proportion of racialized decisions is not driven by any conscious race discrimination, but that it is often just driven by unconscious, or subconscious, attitudes.2007 May 2, Alan Schwarz, “Study of N.B.A. Sees Racial Bias in Calling Fouls”, in New York Times
  2. To adapt or alter to conform with the ethnic qualities of a particular race.
    • If Mr. [W. B.] Yeats had not broken clean away from his Irish forerunners his poetry would not have delighted anybody save the resolute patriot. We say this not because we wish to rob Ireland of her legitimate glory, but because we think her glory will be dimmed if Irish poetry be too selfishly...1902 March 8, “Literature”, in The Athenænum, number 3880, page 299
    • As a race, negroes sing well and dance well, but they have made no distinct contribution to the play-life of nations. It is a matter of no little significance that the negro, while he has been singing his own melodies into the heats of all nations, has yet no folk-games, no race, pageants, no...1918, A. M. Trawick, “The Play Life of Negro Boys and Girls”, in James E. McCulloch, editor, Southern Sociological Congress, page 356

Examples of racialize in a sentence

  • We say this not because we wish to rob Ireland of her legitimate glory, but because we think her glory will be dimmed if Irish poetry be too selfishly racialized.1902 March 8, “Literature”, in The Athenænum, number 3880, page 299:
  • The dance, to the degree he has racialized it, is not among the achievements he is proud to claim.1918, A. M. Trawick, “The Play Life of Negro Boys and Girls”, in James E. McCulloch, editor, Southern Sociological Congress, page 356:

All 15 example sentences with racialize

Forms of racialize

third-person singular presentracializes
present participleracializing
past participleracialized
pastracialized
alternative formracialise

Origin of racialize

From racial + -ize.

Words formed from racialize

Questions about racialize

What does racialize mean?
Racialize means to categorize or treat in racial terms.
How do you use racialize in a sentence?
We say this not because we wish to rob Ireland of her legitimate glory, but because we think her glory will be dimmed if Irish poetry be too selfishly racialized.
What part of speech is racialize?
Racialize is a verb.
What is the past tense of racialize?
The past tense of racialize is racialized.

Words near racialize in the dictionary

  1. racialities
  2. raciality
  3. racializable
  4. racialization
  5. racializations
  6. racialize
  7. racialized
  8. racializer
  9. racializers
  10. racializes
  11. racializing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: racialize (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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