Word.ws English Dictionary

romanize

/ˈɹəʊ.mə.naɪz/US/ˈɹoʊ.məˌnaɪz/

romanize verb: to put letters or words written in another writing system into the Latin (Roman) alphabet.

Verb (1)

romanize (third-person singular simple present romanizes, present participle romanizing, simple past and past participle romanized)

  1. (transitive) To put letters or words written in another writing system into the Latin (Roman) alphabet.
    • The author romanizes Chinese names using the Wade–Giles system rather than the Pinyin system.
    • A new system has been invented by which Chinese can be written in our letters as pronounced. This is called by the rather uncouth name of “Romanised.”1912, Lord William Gascoyne-Cecil, chapter 10, in Changing China,, New York: D. Appleton, page 132
  2. (capitalized, historical, transitive, usually) To bring under the authority or influence of Rome.
    • But since this custome was probably disused before their Invasion or Conquest, and the Romanes confessedly practised the same, since their possession of this Island, the most assured account will fall upon the Romanes, or Brittains Romanized.1658, Thomas Browne, chapter 2, in Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial, London: Hen. Brome, page 28
  3. (ambitransitive, capitalized, usually) To make or become Roman in character or style.
    • […] perhaps he has Romaniz’d his Grecian Dames too much, and made them speak sometimes as if they had been born in the City of Rome, and under the Empire of Augustus.1680, John Dryden, Ovid’s Epistles translated by several hands, London: Jacob Tonson, Preface
    • Long before this period, it [London] was fully romanized, and the customs, manners, buildings, and arts of the conqueror adopted.1790, Thomas Pennant, Of London, London: Robt. Faulder, page 8
  4. (ambitransitive, capitalized, usually) To make or become Roman Catholic in religion (by conversion), character or style.
    • […] the more primitive times of Protestantism were more leaning to that which Romanizing spirits have called Puritanism.1661, John Corbet, The Interest of England in the Matter of Religion, London: George Thomason, Section 11, p. 50
    Synonyms:
    Latinize
  5. (obsolete, transitive) To fill with Latin words or idioms.
    • perhaps too, he [Ben Jonson] did a little to much Romanize our Tongue, leaving the words which he translated almost as much Latine as he found them: wherein though he learnedly followed the Idiom of their language, he did not enough comply with ours.1668, John Dryden, Of Dramatick Poesie, London: Henry Herringman, page 50
    Synonyms:
    Latinize

Verb (2) capitalized: Romanize

Romanize (third-person singular simple present Romanizes, present participle Romanizing, simple past and past participle Romanized)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of romanize.
    • ‘We don’t like their categorization system,’ explained Anthony. ‘It only makes sense in Roman characters, but not every language is so easily Romanized, is it?’2022, R. F. Kuang, Babel, HarperVoyager, page 381

Verb (3) capitalized: Romanize

Romanize (third-person singular simple present Romanizes, present participle Romanizing, simple past and past participle Romanized)

  1. (transitive) To Romanianize.
    • On the surface, the current debate in Transylvania has to do with minority rights and local issues, like the re-establishment of those Hungarian language schools that had been 'Romanized' by Nicolae Ceausescu, the late dictator.1990 November 12, Celestine Bohlen, “Ethnic Rivalries Revive in East Europe”, in The New York Times, section A, page 1
    • The Romanian Communist Party also decided to extensively Romanize the cities of Transylvania through a slow, but inexorable policy of reducing Hungarian cultural identity and autonomy.2004, Claude Karnoouh, “Multiculturalism and Ethnic Relations in Transylvania”, in Henry F. Carey, editor, Romania Since 1989: Politics, Economics, and Society, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, →ISBN...

romanize meaning in Arabic, Malay and Vietnamese

romanize in Arabic

to put letters or words into the Latin alphabet
رَوْمَنَ rawmana, نَقْحَرَ naqḥara, كَرْشَنَ karšana

romanize in Malay

to put letters or words into the Latin alphabet
perumian

romanize in Vietnamese

to put letters or words into the Latin alphabet
Latinh hóa, Latinh hoá
to bring under authority or influence of Rome
La Mã hóa, Latinh hóa

Synonyms of romanize

Forms of romanize

third-person singular presentromanizes
present participleromanizing
past participleromanized
pastromanized
alternative formromanise
alternative formRomanize
alternative formRomanise
third-person singular presentRomanizes
present participleRomanizing
past participleRomanized
pastRomanized

Origin of romanize

From Roman + -ize.

From Roman(ian) + -ize.

Words formed from romanize

Questions about romanize

What does romanize mean?
Romanize means to put letters or words written in another writing system into the Latin (Roman) alphabet.
What is romanize in Arabic?
Romanize in Arabic is رَوْمَنَ (rawmana), نَقْحَرَ (naqḥara), كَرْشَنَ (karšana). See Romanize meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is romanize?
Romanize is a verb.
How do you pronounce romanize?
Romanize is pronounced /ˈɹəʊ.mə.naɪz/ (UK).
What is the past tense of romanize?
The past tense of romanize is romanized.

Words near romanize in the dictionary

  1. Romanistics
  2. Romanists
  3. Romanity
  4. romanization
  5. romanizations
  6. romanize
  7. romanized
  8. Romanizer
  9. Romanizers
  10. romanizes
  11. romanizing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: romanize (page history and authors); Romanize (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-romanize.wav.

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