Sanitize

//ˈsænətaɪz// verb

verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To rid of microorganisms by cleaning or disinfecting. transitive
  2. 2
    make less offensive or more acceptable by removing objectionable features wordnet
  3. 3
    To make something, such as a dramatic work, more acceptable by removing potentially offensive material. broadly, transitive

    "Near-synonym: bowdlerize"

  4. 4
    make sanitary by cleaning or sterilizing wordnet
  5. 5
    To filter (text) to ensure it does not contain any characters that will cause problems for or be interpreted in an adverse way by the receiving system. transitive

    "Remember to sanitize your query parameters to avoid SQL injection exploits."

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    To remove sensitive or personal data from (a database or file). transitive
  2. 7
    To revise (a document) in order to prevent identification of the sources. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
boilbowdlerizechlorinatecleancleansedecontaminate

Example

More examples

"Many municipalities have reduced chlorination and now also use ultraviolet light to sanitize the public supply of drinking water."

Etymology

From sanitary. By surface analysis, sanity + -ize.

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