What does "pasteurize" mean?

To heat food for the purpose of killing harmful organisms such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa, molds, and yeasts.

What is a synonym for "pasteurize"?

Common synonyms include: boil, chlorinate, decontaminate, delouse, fumigate, pasteurise.

Pronounced //ˈpæst͡ʃəɹaɪz//.

//ˈpæst͡ʃəɹaɪz// verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Verb

1
To heat food for the purpose of killing harmful organisms such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa, molds, and yeasts. transitive
2
heat food in order to kill harmful microorganisms wordnet

Borrowed from French pasteuriser. From Louis Pasteur, the inventor of the process, + -ize.

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