industrialization

noun

in·​dus·​tri·​al·​i·​za·​tion in-ˌdə-strē-ə-lə-ˈzā-shən 

: the act or process of industrializing : the widespread development of industries in a region, country, culture, etc.

Industrialization and modern insect control have improved the quality of life around the globe, but they have also added some 100,000 chemical compounds that, some scientists worry, could affect the health of people and wildlife.

—Hannah Fairfield

Investors became convinced that growing global demand for energy, the industrialization of China and India and the lack of spare production capacity would keep crude prices surging ever upward.

—A. Gary Shilling

Television, like industrialization and democracy, was slow to arrive in Italy, coming in 1954, several years after it was introduced in the US.

—Alexander Stille

Examples of industrialization in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

These Kashmiri shawls lay at the heart of imperial debates about industrialization, authenticity, and taste, Zutshi explains. —H.m.a. Leow, JSTOR Daily, 6 Aug. 2025

While most of the Midwest region (and the United States in general) was grappling with industrialization and the evolving social dynamics of the Reconstruction Era, in 1870, a young Louis Greater dared to do something that many would call revolutionary and bold. —Ronny Maye, Forbes.com, 19 July 2025

Much of that knowledge has been buried under centuries of industrialization and disconnection. —Letters To The Editor, The Orlando Sentinel, 5 July 2025

One was Steven Ross’ book, ‘Workers on the Edge,’ which looks at that critical moment of industrialization in the 1870s and early 1880s. —Jeff Suess, The Enquirer, 4 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1892, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for industrialization

• americanization
• anticoagulation
• antidiscrimination
• bioaccumulation
• bioremediation
• compartmentalization
• contextualization
• copolymerization
• decriminalization
• dehumidification
• demilitarization
• demineralization