collectivize

verb col·lec·tiv·ize \ kə-ˈlek-ti-ˌvīz \

Definition of collectivize

collectivized; collectivizing

transitive verb

: to organize by collectivism

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collectivization

play \kə-ˌlek-ti-və-ˈzā-shən\ noun

Recent Examples of collectivize from the Web

At the same time, a hairy Marxist academic who's been hanging around the factory tries to persuade the workers to collectivize and run the place themselves, a notion that soon collides with their unenlightened self-interest.

— Chicago Reader, "More than 60 new features premiere locally at the European Union Film Festival," 7 Mar. 2018
The seeds of the disaster were sown when Stalin collectivized the vast farmlands of Ukraine in 1929, systematically ending not only local farming autonomy but all aspects of local autonomy, from village government to inheritance laws.

— steve donoghue, The Christian Science Monitor, "'Red Famine' chronicles the ruin wrought upon Ukraine by Josef Stalin," 20 Oct. 2017
To understand where ObamaCare is vulnerable, first consider why President Obama succeeded in collectivizing American health care when President Clinton had failed.

— phil gramm, WSJ, "Republicans, Stand Up for Health Freedom," 18 Oct. 2017
The government does not collectivize all the farms in the country and determine what should be grown, how much should be grown and what farmers will be paid for their crops.

— Alaska Dispatch News, "Readers write: Letters to the editor, July 19, 2017," 19 July 2017
Seven million people died in a famine in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s after Josef Stalin forcibly collectivized 75 percent of the farms in the Ukraine.

— susan shelley, Orange County Register, "World is starving for the ingenuity of free-market agribusiness," 21 Jan. 2017
The famine precipitated by the 1958-61 Great Leap Forward, Mao Zedong’s campaign to collectivize agriculture and quickly expand industry, which killed tens of millions of people, is known in China as the Three Years of Natural Disasters.

— didi kirsten tatlow, New York Times, "Don’t Call It ‘Smog’ in Beijing, Call It a ‘Meteorological Disaster’," 15 Dec. 2016
Millions died in Communist political campaigns after the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, and in a famine precipitated by an effort to collectivize agriculture in the late 1950s.

— didi kirsten tatlow, New York Times, "Why Send Germany a Statue of Marx? The Chinese Have Some Ideas," 21 May 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'collectivize.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.