Unionize
verb ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 To organize workers into a union. ambitransitive
"The company laid off all the workers when they tried to unionize."
- 2 Synonym of deionize.; To cause (an ionized substance) to return to a neutral state; to convert (an ion) into a neutral atom or molecule. physical, rare, transitive
"For the experiments designed to study the effect of pH, aqueous solutions of NaOH were used. Approximately 3 mL of the aqueous phase was drawn out for sampling and a portion of this was used to determine the pH[…]. The other portion was analyzed after addition of HCl solution to bring the pH below 3.0 (to unionize the dissociated vinyl acids)."
- 3 form or join a union wordnet
- 4 Synonym of deionize.; Of an ionized substance, to return to a neutral state. intransitive, physical, rare
"The water absorbency of the anionically starch-grafted AA/AM absorbent is markedly affected by the pH of the buffer solution at different ionic strengths. The charge of the ionic monomer affects the pH sensitivity of the superabsorbent polymers. An acidic superabsorbent normally ionizes at high pH but unionizes at low pH."
- 5 recruit for a union or organize into a union wordnet
Example
More examples"Much attention recently has been given to efforts to unionize corporate giants Amazon and Starbucks in the United States. However, the ILO report highlights the important role collective bargaining plays in developing, as well as developed countries. Lead author of the ILO report Susan Hayter says 57 of the agreements reviewed were in African countries. She says country studies found that collective bargaining in those countries is as effective, if not in some ways more effective, than in developed countries."
Etymology
From union + -ize.
From un- + ionize.
More for "unionize"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.