Word.ws English Dictionary

westernize

westernize verb: to render something western in character.

Verb (1)

westernize (third-person singular simple present westernizes, present participle westernizing, simple past and past participle westernized)

  1. (intransitive, transitive) To render something western in character.
    • This was Joseph Needham's famous paradox. Why did China, with its ideals of spreading Confucian virtues across the world, fail to “Sinicise” the surrounding world and instead allow itself to be westernised?2006 April, Jin Guoping, “Zheng He e a África Oriental [Zheng He and East Africa]”, in Richard Trewinnard, transl., Oriente, →ISSN, page 44
    • Users on Chinese social media expressed anger that the Netflix adaptation Westernized aspects of the story, and said the show sought to demonize some of the Chinese characters.2024 April 1, David Pierson, “The Bizarre Chinese Murder Plot Behind Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
    Synonyms:
    occidentalize
    Antonyms:
    dewesternize

Verb (2) capitalized: Westernize

Westernize (third-person singular simple present Westernizes, present participle Westernizing, simple past and past participle Westernized)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of westernize.

Synonyms of westernize

Antonyms

Forms of westernize

third-person singular presentwesternizes
present participlewesternizing
past participlewesternized
pastwesternized
alternative formwesternise
alternative formWesternize
third-person singular presentWesternizes
present participleWesternizing
past participleWesternized
pastWesternized

Origin of westernize

From western + -ize.

Words formed from westernize

Questions about westernize

What does westernize mean?
Westernize means to render something western in character.
What part of speech is westernize?
Westernize is a verb.
What is the past tense of westernize?
The past tense of westernize is westernized.

Words near westernize in the dictionary

  1. westernising
  2. westernism
  3. westernisms
  4. westernization
  5. westernizations
  6. westernize
  7. westernized
  8. Westernizer
  9. Westernizers
  10. westernizes
  11. westernizing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: westernize (page history and authors); Westernize (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: “westernize.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/westernize. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.