Meaning

1 senses
  1. American and Oxford British standard spelling of civilise.

More definitions
  • raise from a barbaric to a civilized state
  • teach or refine to be discriminative in taste or judgment

Examples

6 sentences
  1. Europeans tried to civilize the tribe.

    deEuropäer versuchten, den Stamm zu zivilisieren. — mauersegler

  2. Bush only wants to civilize the world.

  3. But when the federal government tried to ‘civilize’ tribal people, this sign language began to die out.

  4. Such are the data that clearly show the bestial face of the colonialists, the essence of their "civilizing" activities in the colonies.

    ruТаковы данные, ясно показывающие звериный лик колонизаторов, суть их "цивилизаторской" деятельности в колониях. — soweli_Elepanto

  5. The US attempted to "civilize" Native Americans.

Origin

Borrowed from French civiliser, corresponding to civil + -ize.

Borrowed from French civiliser, corresponding to civil + -ize.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

civilizes, civilizing, civilized, civilized
Base formcivilize · to civilize
3rd person singularcivilizes
Present participlecivilizing
Past simplecivilized
Past participlecivilized

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theycivilize
he, she, itcivilizes

Past simpleLesson

all personscivilized

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave civilized
he, she, ithas civilized

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill civilize

Synonyms

5 synonyms
Close in meaning

Word family

14 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
civilize — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto