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Glite Dictionary
🏥 To send to institution 🏛️ To make official
to institutionalize

to institutionalize

21 7.2
Send someone to live for a long time in a hospital, prison, or care home
  • verb
  • /ˌɪnstɪˈtjuːʃənəlaɪz/
  • US
: internar
  • He was institutionalized in a mental health facility for several years after his diagnosis.
  • institutionalized children
  • institutionalized care
  • institutionalized violence

And some people need to be institutionalized.

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Examples

  • You've been through a breakdown that led you to being institutionalized.

    The Humbling (2014)

  • She was institutionalized before she came to us.

    A Cure for Wellness (2017)

  • So he was institutionalized for a year with the brothers.

    Loose Cannons (1990)

  • I met this guy, when I was institutionalized.

    Life Itself (2018)

  • By the time I was born... my mother was already institutionalized.

    Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010)

  • The New York case was brought on behalf of six patients who were institutionalized in state mental health facilities.

    Academic text (1998)

  • After his suicide, his wife was institutionalized.

    Wish Upon (2017)

  • Overall, elderly women are twice as likely to be institutionalized as elderly men.

    Academic text (1990)

  • She was institutionalized in Scandinavia.

    Zeroville (2019)

  • We don't want her institutionalized, but the Meadow Wood Convalescent Home is willing to take her.

    Frances (1982)

Synonyms

to send
vsto institutionalize
∞ 1.0

Make someone go to a place, often for work or as punishment

implies long institutional residence rather than a simple transfer or assignment
to put away
vsto institutionalize
147 5.8

To lock someone in prison or a secure place

emphasizes long institutional residence rather than mainly punishment or secrecy
to imprison
vsto institutionalize
  • Formal
131 4.2

Put someone in prison as a punishment or keep them locked up

focuses more on long-term living in an institution rather than punishment alone
to incarcerate
vsto institutionalize
  • Formal
90 8.4

To put someone in prison and keep them there

includes that confinement but also noncustodial institutional living for care
to hospitalize
vsto institutionalize
  • US
84 3.9

Take someone into a hospital for medical care

covers long stays in various institutions, not only medical care
to commit
vsto institutionalize
  • Formal
53 7.0

To send someone by legal order to prison or hospital

is about long-term residence in an institution rather than only legal placement
to jail
vsto institutionalize
8 2.1

To put someone in prison as punishment

applies more broadly to placement in many kinds of institutions, not only prison

How Confined

to incarcerate
  • Formal
90 8.4
to institutionalize
  • US
21 7.2
to commit
  • Formal
53 7.0
to admit
70 2.8

Surface Forms

institutionalize infinitive
institutionalized past
institutionalized past participle
institutionalizing present participle
institutionalizes third person singular

Morphology

institutionalize = institutional (transparent) = institution + al + ize

Adding the productive verb-forming suffix '-ize' to 'institutional' yields a verb meaning 'make or place within an institution', which is directly inferable.

Etymology

The word institutionalize comes from institution, which comes from a Latin verb meaning 'to set up' or 'establish'. An institution is a place 'set up' for a purpose, like a hospital or prison, so to institutionalize someone is to send them to such a place to live for a long time.