Word.ws English Dictionary

relativize

relativize verb: to make one thing relative to another.

Verb

relativize (third-person singular simple present relativizes, present participle relativizing, simple past and past participle relativized)

  1. To make one thing relative to another.
    • However, many thinkers (Protestant and Catholic) have used historical-critical methods to relativize New Testament materials on sex and gender to their original settings, rather quickly substituting for "obsolete" moral prohibitions a modern, liberal set of values[…]1996, Lisa Sowle Cahill, Sex, Gender, and Christian Ethics, page 256
  2. To make relative.
    • to relativize indirect objects

Forms of relativize

third-person singular presentrelativizes
present participlerelativizing
past participlerelativized
pastrelativized
alternative formrelativise

Origin of relativize

From relative + -ize.

Words formed from relativize

Questions about relativize

What does relativize mean?
Relativize means to make one thing relative to another.
What part of speech is relativize?
Relativize is a verb.
What is the past tense of relativize?
The past tense of relativize is relativized.

Words near relativize in the dictionary

  1. relativitists
  2. relativity
  3. relativizable
  4. relativization
  5. relativizations
  6. relativize
  7. relativized
  8. relativizer
  9. relativizers
  10. relativizes
  11. relativizing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: relativize (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-relativize.ogg.

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