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Glite Dictionary
🌍 To take control 🦠 To spread (microbes)
to colonialize

to colonialize

8.6
To become covered by bacteria or fungi
  • verb
  • /ˌkɒləˈnaɪz/
  • Specialized
translation icon : colonizar
  • Surfaces in hospitals can become colonialized by antibiotic-resistant microorganisms if not properly cleaned.

Examples

  • Doctors monitored whether the catheter site had been colonialized by any harmful microbes.

  • The lab observed how fungi colonialised the tissue.

  • The wound was quickly colonialized by bacteria, requiring immediate medical attention.

  • Bacteria can colonialize surfaces quickly.

  • The wound was quickly colonialized by bacteria, requiring immediate medical attention.

  • Surfaces in hospitals can become colonialized by antibiotic-resistant microorganisms if not properly cleaned.

  • Doctors monitored whether the catheter site had been colonialized by any harmful microbes.

Antonyms

to sterilize
  • Specialized
29 4.1

To make something like medical tools free of bacteria using heat or chemicals

How Colonized

to overrun
38 4.8
to colonialize
  • Specialized
8.6
to overgrow
2 4.4

Surface Forms

colonialize infinitive
colonialized past
colonialized past participle
colonializing present participle
colonializes third person singular

Morphology

colonialize = colonial (transparent) = colony + ial + ize

Built from 'colonial' + '-ize'; the extension to microorganisms forming 'colonies' is a predictable, compositional extension.

Etymology

Colonialize in medicine uses the same basic idea and comes from colony and colonus meaning 'settler'. So when bacteria or fungi colonialize a wound or surface, they 'settle' there and begin to grow like settlers in a new place.