Communalize
verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To take property into communal ownership. transitive
"For example, in Plato's Republic, marriage was forbidden, wives were "communalized," and children were separated from their parents and considered orphans of the state."
- 2 make something the property of the commune or community wordnet
- 3 To transfer responsibility and power to the community level. transitive
"Communalizing this wealth means that the power to determine the ultimate uses and disposition of land and water rests with the appropriate territorial community."
- 4 To treat as happening to or belonging to one's own group; to make (something) the subject of empathic understanding. transitive
"In general the world exists not only for isolated men but for the community of men; and this is due to the fact that even what is straightforwardly perceptual is communalized."
- 5 To develop into a set of community conventions. transitive
"The speech of insiders is hardly individualized; they are accustomed to communalized speech patterns."
Example
More examples"For example, in Plato's Republic, marriage was forbidden, wives were "communalized," and children were separated from their parents and considered orphans of the state."
Etymology
From communal + -ize.
More for "communalize"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.