industrialize

verb

in·​dus·​tri·​al·​ize in-ˈdə-strē-ə-ˌlīz How to pronounce industrialize (audio)
industrialized; industrializing

transitive verb

: to make industrial
industrialize an agricultural region

intransitive verb

: to become industrial

Examples of industrialize in a Sentence

The government hopes to industrialize some of the agricultural regions.
Recent Examples on the Web But after the school moved, the site was heavily industrialized. Gregory S. Schneider, Washington Post, 28 Feb. 2024 And much of the lower Mississippi is heavily industrialized — between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, for example, oil, gas and chemical plants line the river. Journal Sentinel, 27 Feb. 2024 The 15 trillion cubic feet of gas found in 2015 has turned Senegal into one of Africa’s biggest potential producers of natural gas — and turned Sall into a global champion for the right of developing nations to use their resources, including fossil fuels, to industrialize and develop. Rachel Chason, Washington Post, 31 Jan. 2024 From China to Japan to Thailand, officials have favored weaker currencies to make their products cheaper on world markets, boosting their efforts to industrialize. Peter S. Goodman Jes Aznar, New York Times, 30 Dec. 2023 During the Soviet Union’s First Five-Year Plan—a development initiative that lasted from 1928 to 1932—a group of American architects and engineers worked from a Moscow office to help implement Stalin’s highly ambitious program to industrialize his agricultural country. Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 2023 Faced with unrecoverable job losses in agriculture, small-town leaders courted manufacturers with subsidies, obliging regulations, and a cheap, non-unionized workforce. Manufacturers, accepting this invitation, industrialized the rural landscape. Daniel Immerwahr, The New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2023 Other than South Africa and a handful of countries in North Africa, most of the continent has failed to industrialize. Declan Walsh, New York Times, 27 Oct. 2023 Many kibbutzim eventually industrialized to find new ways to make money. Kelsey Ables, Washington Post, 10 Oct. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'industrialize.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1845, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Time Traveler
The first known use of industrialize was in 1845

Dictionary Entries Near industrialize

Cite this Entry

“Industrialize.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/industrialize. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

industrialize

verb
in·​dus·​tri·​al·​ize in-ˈdəs-trē-ə-ˌlīz How to pronounce industrialize (audio)
industrialized; industrializing
: to make or become industrial
industrialize an agricultural region
industrialization noun

More from Merriam-Webster on industrialize

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