Word.ws English Dictionary

re-etymologize

re-etymologize verb: to modify a word's phonological form in accordance with a reanalysis.

Verb

re-etymologize (third-person singular simple present re-etymologizes, present participle re-etymologizing, simple past and past participle re-etymologized)

  1. To modify a word's phonological form in accordance with a reanalysis.

Forms of re-etymologize

third-person singular presentre-etymologizes
present participlere-etymologizing
past participlere-etymologized
pastre-etymologized
alternative formreetymologize

Origin of re-etymologize

Back-formation from re-etymologization; re- + etymologize.

Questions about re-etymologize

What does re-etymologize mean?
Re-etymologize means to modify a word's phonological form in accordance with a reanalysis.
What part of speech is re-etymologize?
Re-etymologize is a verb.
What is the past tense of re-etymologize?
The past tense of re-etymologize is re-etymologized.

Words near re-etymologize in the dictionary

  1. re-estimations
  2. re-ethnisation
  3. re-ethnization
  4. re-etymologization
  5. re-etymologizations
  6. re-etymologize
  7. re-etymologized
  8. re-etymologizes
  9. re-etymologizing
  10. re-evaluate
  11. re-evaluated

Source and license

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