Word.ws English Dictionary

recriminalize

recriminalize verb: to criminalize again; to make (something previously decriminalized) illegal again.

Verb

recriminalize (third-person singular simple present recriminalizes, present participle recriminalizing, simple past and past participle recriminalized)

  1. (transitive) To criminalize again; to make (something previously decriminalized) illegal again.
    • He looks at Rohit and recalls the rainbows on his cheeks as they walked through the streets when the country recriminalized homosexuality.2023, Devika Rege, Quarterlife, Dialogue Books (2025), page 206

Forms of recriminalize

third-person singular presentrecriminalizes
present participlerecriminalizing
past participlerecriminalized
pastrecriminalized
alternative UKrecriminalise

Origin of recriminalize

From re- + criminalize.

Questions about recriminalize

What does recriminalize mean?
Recriminalize means to criminalize again; to make (something previously decriminalized) illegal again.
What part of speech is recriminalize?
Recriminalize is a verb.
What is the past tense of recriminalize?
The past tense of recriminalize is recriminalized.

Words near recriminalize in the dictionary

  1. recrewing
  2. recrews
  3. recriminalisation
  4. recriminalization
  5. recriminalizations
  6. recriminalize
  7. recriminalized
  8. recriminalizes
  9. recriminalizing
  10. recriminate
  11. recriminated

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: recriminalize (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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