Avianize

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To attenuate (something such as a virus, for example for use in a vaccine) by repeatedly culturing it in bird embryos.

    "In Japan a lapinized/avianized vaccine was developed which was used extensively to control the disease in Asia. [.].. The Onderstepoort strain was attenuated by growth in avian cells [...]"

  2. 2
    to modify microorganisms by repeated culture in the developing chick embryo wordnet
  3. 3
    To make avian; to make bird-like or into a bird. rare

    "[…] In the third stratum dances the spirits impersonated in the kuksuyu and kilaki, which elsewhere are regarded as anthropomorphic deity and dragon respectively, are by the Central and some Northern Miwok identified with birds, the kuksuyu with a shore bird, the kilaki with a hawk. This is perhaps a manifestation of the tendency to avianize even the new dances of the third or Ghost-Dance stratum."

Example

More examples

"In Japan a lapinized/avianized vaccine was developed which was used extensively to control the disease in Asia. [.].. The Onderstepoort strain was attenuated by growth in avian cells [...]"

Etymology

From avian + -ize.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.