Westernize

verb

verb ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To render something western in character. intransitive, transitive

    "Users on Chinese social media expressed anger that the Netflix adaptation Westernized aspects of the story, and said the show sought to demonize some of the Chinese characters."

  2. 2
    Alternative letter-case form of westernize. alt-of
  3. 3
    make western in character wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
occidentaliseoccidentalizeoccidentalizewesternise

Example

More examples

"Mr. Erdogan will not only see Mr. Chirac and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin during his three-day visit. He has also scheduled meetings with French businessmen, the two main political parties and representatives of France's sizable Turkish community. The Turkish leader says he will emphasize how his government has adapted its laws to those of the EU, and explain that the vast majority of Turks see EU membership as a national project to modernize and Westernize their country."

Etymology

From western + -ize.

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