noun ·6 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The act of cannibalizing.; the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food
2. 2
   The act of cannibalizing.; adapting, borrowing or stealing plots, characters, themes or ideas from one story for use in another or from one medium to another
3. 3
   The act of cannibalizing.; a reduction in sales volume, sales revenue, or market share of one product when the same company introduces a new product
4. 4
   The act of cannibalizing.; the practice of removing parts or subsystems necessary for repair from another similar device

Etymology

From cannibal + -ization.

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