Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🪓 To become uncivilized 🪓 To make uncivilized
to barbarize

to barbarize

9.5
To make language rude or violent
  • verb
  • /ˈbɑːrbəraɪz/
: barbarizar
  • The corrupt regime barbarized its people through years of oppression and brutality.

Examples

  • Some argue that constant violence in media can barbarize viewers, desensitizing them to real suffering.

  • Centuries of war threatened to barbarize even the most advanced societies.

  • Don't barbarize your speech in front of guests!

  • He barbarized his language during the heated argument.

  • Constant exposure to violent films can barbarize young viewers, leading them to behave aggressively.

  • The city began to barbarize after years of neglect and crime, with people ignoring basic social rules.

  • In his anger, he started to barbarize his language, using words that shocked everyone in the room.

Synonyms

to brutalize
vsto barbarize
  • Offensive
31 7.7

Treat someone cruelly with violence or make them numb to suffering

describes making conduct or speech crude rather than inflicting violence
to dehumanize
vsto barbarize
  • Formal
24 7.5

To treat a person as if they are not human and take away their dignity

focuses on crude or uncivilized conduct or speech instead of dignity removal
to bestialize
vsto barbarize
  • NSFW
1 9.9

Make a person or group lose human feelings and act like a cruel animal

makes behavior or speech crude and uncivilized rather than beastlike
to animalize
vsto barbarize
  • Offensive
1 9.7

Make someone cruel and act without human feelings

is about crude or savage behavior and speech rather than merely less human

Antonyms

to refine
68 4.0

Make something better by making a few small changes

to civilize
11 4.4

Make a person or group more polite and socially aware

How Barbaric

to dehumanize
  • Formal
24 7.5
to brutalize
  • Offensive
31 7.7
to barbarize
9.5
to vulgarize
  • US
1 8.4
to coarsen
5 6.5

Surface Forms

barbarize infinitive
barbarized past
barbarized past participle
barbarizing present participle
barbarizes third person singular

Morphology

barbarize = barbarian (transparent) = barbar + ize

The verb is formed by the productive suffix '-ize' meaning 'make' applied to the stem 'barbar-' (as in 'barbarian'/'barbaric'), so the meaning 'to make savage/uncivilized' is directly inferable.

Etymology

Barbarize comes from the ancient Greek barbaros, meaning 'foreign' and echoing the 'bar-bar' noise that sounded like strange language. It is the root of barbarian and barbaric, so to barbarize is to make people or speech savage and uncivilized.