institutionalized

adjective

in·​sti·​tu·​tion·​al·​ized ˌin(t)-stə-ˈt(y)ü-sh(ə-)nə-ˌlīzd 

1

a

: created and controlled by an established organization

institutionalized housing

institutionalized religion

b

: established as a common and accepted part of a system or culture

institutionalized beliefs and practices

2

: placed in the care of a specialized institution

At first, the researchers … confine their studies to serial killers, mass murderers, institutionalized sociopaths …

—Marilyn Stasio

Examples of institutionalized in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The orderly, progressive, and highly institutionalized blending of electoral politics with stable administrative states that dominated Western European and American politics for the past half century shares little with this rude and revolutionary force. —Walter Russell Mead, The Atlantic, 24 Jan. 2026

That means uprooting institutionalized callousness and redefining what counts as efficiency, innovation and value. —Valerie L. Myers, The Conversation, 8 Jan. 2026

The woman who brutally stabbed her sixth-grade classmate more than a decade ago is returning to institutionalized care on Tuesday after running away from a group home last month. —Doha Madani, NBC news, 23 Dec. 2025

The fairy tale works its spell through persistent naïveté, by simple defamiliarization that unmasks the institutionalized and the ordinary as the absurd. —Sara Holdren, Vulture, 5 Dec. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1844, in the meaning defined at sense 1b

Medical Definition

institutionalized

adjective

in·​sti·​tu·​tion·​al·​ized

variants or chiefly British institutionalised

ˌin(t)-stə-ˈt(y)ü-shnəl-ˌīzd, -shən-ᵊl- 

: accustomed so firmly to the care and routine of an institution as to find independent life in the outside world difficult or unmanageable

Many prisoners who only need a drug or alcohol program become more institutionalized with each mandatory return.

—Robert L. Johnson, Undoing Time