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Glite Dictionary
to Romanize

to Romanize

1 6.9
To write words from another alphabet using Latin letters
  • verb
  • /ˈroʊməˌnaɪz/
  • Specialized
translation icon : romanizar
  • Many scholars romanize ancient texts to make them accessible to modern readers who may not know the original scripts.

Examples

  • Students often find it easier to understand foreign names when they are romanized to use the Latin alphabet.

  • Since the BHU catalog contained a large percentage of Hebrew and Yiddish titles, and because their ILS was not Unicode compliant, the records for those titles were Romanized.

    Academic text (2014)

  • Though Japanese people would sometimes like to Romanize the ? ? in their names as " Toh " as they think double o's look a bit too redundant.

    Blog text (32)

  • The party first tried in 1951 to establish a standardized language, simplify written characters, and introduce romanized forms based on the Latin alphabet.

    Academic text (1992)

  • To improve readability, capitalization and spelling have been modernized, and italicization has been romanized in most eighteenth-century quotations.

    Academic text (2009)

  • The guidebook provides a romanized version of the local language, which helps tourists pronounce the names correctly.

Synonyms

to transliterate
vsto Romanize
1 7.7

To write words from one alphabet using the letters of another alphabet, not translate them

is limited to writing into the Latin alphabet rather than any script
to transcribe
vsto Romanize
1 4.4

To write words from one alphabet into another

applies to converting written script into the Latin alphabet, not transcribing speech
to Latinize
vsto Romanize
  • Specialized
7.7

Write a word or name using the Latin alphabet so people can read it

has identical meaning but uses an alternate name

Surface Forms

Romanize infinitive
Romanized past
Romanized past participle
Romanizing present participle
Romanizes third person singular

Morphology

Romanize = Roman (transparent) = Roman + ize

The verb is formed by the productive verb-forming suffix '-ize' applied to 'Roman', yielding the straightforward meaning 'make or render Roman' (commonly 'write in the Roman/Latin alphabet').

Etymology

Romanize comes from Roman, which means 'of Rome', and it refers to writing words with the Roman alphabet, the same letters we use in English. So to Romanize a name or text is to put it into those familiar letters so other people can read it.