Racialize

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To categorize or treat in racial terms.

    "There’s a growing consensus that a large proportion of racialized decisions is not driven by any conscious race discrimination, but that it is often just driven by unconscious, or subconscious, attitudes."

  2. 2
    To adapt or alter to conform with the ethnic qualities of a particular race.

    "If Mr. [W. B.] Yeats had not broken clean away from his Irish forerunners his poetry would not have delighted anybody save the resolute patriot. We say this not because we wish to rob Ireland of her legitimate glory, but because we think her glory will be dimmed if Irish poetry be too selfishly racialized."

Example

More examples

"There’s a growing consensus that a large proportion of racialized decisions is not driven by any conscious race discrimination, but that it is often just driven by unconscious, or subconscious, attitudes."

Etymology

From racial + -ize.

Related phrases

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