Privatize

//ˈpɹaɪvətaɪz// verb

verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To release government control (of a business or industry) to private industry. British, English, Oxford, US
  2. 2
    change from governmental to private control or ownership wordnet
  3. 3
    To render (a variable, etc.) private in scope. British, English, Oxford, US, transitive

    "If the compiler allocates a privatized variable to a register, it must examine whether the variable is live after the termination of the while-loop."

  4. 4
    To render a thought or an idea, private in scope. British, English, Oxford, US, transitive, uncommon

    "The neoliberal, privatizing version of health in which everyone is responsible for themselves, despite disparities in resources."

Synonyms

All synonyms
denationalizedenationalizeprivatise

Example

More examples

"The government has now abandoned its plans to privatize parts of the health service."

Etymology

From private + -ize.

Related phrases

self-privatize

More for "privatize"

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