Romanize
verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To put letters or words written in another writing system into the Latin (Roman) alphabet. transitive
"The author romanizes Chinese names using the Wade–Giles system rather than the Pinyin system."
- 2 Alternative letter-case form of romanize. alt-of
"‘We don’t like their categorization system,’ explained Anthony. ‘It only makes sense in Roman characters, but not every language is so easily Romanized, is it?’"
- 3 To Romanianize. transitive
"On the surface, the current debate in Transylvania has to do with minority rights and local issues, like the re-establishment of those Hungarian language schools that had been 'Romanized' by Nicolae Ceausescu, the late dictator."
- 4 write in the Latin alphabet wordnet
- 5 To bring under the authority or influence of Rome. capitalized, historical, transitive, usually
"But since this custome was probably disused before their Invasion or Conquest, and the Romanes confessedly practised the same, since their possession of this Island, the most assured account will fall upon the Romanes, or Brittains Romanized."
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- 6 To make or become Roman in character or style. ambitransitive, capitalized, usually
"[…] perhaps he has Romaniz’d his Grecian Dames too much, and made them speak sometimes as if they had been born in the City of Rome, and under the Empire of Augustus."
- 7 To make or become Roman Catholic in religion (by conversion), character or style. ambitransitive, capitalized, usually
"[…] the more primitive times of Protestantism were more leaning to that which Romanizing spirits have called Puritanism."
- 8 To fill with Latin words or idioms. obsolete, transitive
"perhaps too, he [Ben Jonson] did a little to much Romanize our Tongue, leaving the words which he translated almost as much Latine as he found them: wherein though he learnedly followed the Idiom of their language, he did not enough comply with ours."
Example
More examples"Do you want to Romanize your language? Maybe, you should."
Etymology
From Roman + -ize.
From Roman(ian) + -ize.
Related phrases
More for "romanize"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.