ossify

verb

os·si·fy ˈä-sə-ˌfī

ossified; ossifying

Synonyms of ossify next

intransitive verb

: to change into bone

The cartilages ossified with age.

: to become hardened or conventional and opposed to change

so easy for the mind to ossify and generous ideals to end in stale platitudes—

John Buchan

transitive verb

: to change (a material, such as cartilage) into bone

ossified tendons of muscle

: to make rigidly conventional and opposed to change

ossified institutions

ossified ideologies

Did you know?

The skeletons of mammals originate as soft cartilage that gradually transforms into hard bone (in humans, the process begins in the womb and continues until late adolescence). This bone-building process has been called ossification since the late 17th century, and the verb ossify arrived soon after the noun. Both terms have come to refer to figurative types of hardening, such as that of the heart, mind, or soul. The words come from the Latin root os, meaning "bone." Os has also entered English as a synonym of bone in scientific contexts.

Did you know?

What is the difference between ossify and calcify?

Medically speaking, ossify refers to the process by which bone forms, or by which tissue (usually cartilage) changes into bone. Ossification is a natural process that starts in utero and which comprises several different steps—one of which is the deposit of calcium salts, also known as calcification. Calcify, however, only refers to the deposit of calcium salts in soft tissue and is not synonymous with ossify. Ossification creates bone tissue, which is more than simply a deposit of calcium salts.

Both ossify and calcify have gained more general uses as well. Calcify refers to hardening, to becoming inflexible and unable to change:

What were once upstart revisionist currents calcified into self-regarding academic sub-specialties, sponsoring plenty of analysis but little fundamental debate.
— Sean Wilentz, The New Republic, 2 July 2001

Ossify refers to becoming inflexible, conventional, and resistant to change:

For these writers, the ossified ideologies of the world, imbedded in the communal imagination, block vision, and as artists they respond not by criticism from without but by confrontation from within.
—Robert Coover, The New York Times Book Review, 18 Mar. 1984

While ossify generally has a slightly more disparaging connotation to it than calcify does in general uses, our evidence shows that the two words are beginning to merge semantically.

Examples of ossify in a Sentence

The cartilage will ossify, becoming bone. a disease that ossifies the joints

Recent Examples on the Web Once born, however, a baby's bones begin to ossify, being surrounded and supplanted by harder, heavier bones. —

Sam Walters, Discover Magazine, 3 Nov. 2023 But diminished artist income could stanch new work, ossifying a market where trading volumes have already crashed 95% from $17 billion in January 2022, according to figures from Token Terminal. —

Sidhartha Shukla, Fortune, 5 Aug. 2023 People care about identity, and a museum must set about ossifying the nebulous concept of collective identity into something tangible, something with plaques, displays and exhibits. —

J.p Brammer, Los Angeles Times, 3 Aug. 2023 As the power of print and traditional media began to wane, television became the dominant form of media consumption, ossifying our metamorphosis to a chiefly visual culture. —

Colin Scanlon, Redbook, 6 July 2023 In 2015, when King Salman took the throne, the nation was ossifying, its royal court and bureaucracy bloated, sclerotic and by the accounts of many Saudis, deeply corrupt. —

Nic Robertson, CNN, 12 June 2023 The pattern has only ossified since then; two years later, Republicans set for a red tsunami, if not at least a red wave got a ripple instead. —

Prem Thakker, The New Republic, 1 May 2023 Ironize forms — such as the oral history or the rockumentary — that have ossified? —

Lili Loofbourow, Washington Post, 3 Mar. 2023 Leaving the European Union helped ossify the United Kingdom’s trajectory into a future of political intransigence, collapsing public services, stagnant wage growth, and periodic food rationing (this week being one of those periods). —

Matt Ford, The New Republic, 25 Feb. 2023 See More

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