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Recent Examples of civilize
Practically speaking, if your checklist is mostly phones and a CPAP, a mid-size electric battery station is civilized: quiet, indoor-safe and instantly useful.
—
Jennifer Jolly, USA Today, 4 Sep. 2025
In this view, other European immigrants were unsuitable for civilizing the frontier—Southern Europeans were effete and decadent while Eastern European Jews were hapless in the woods and better-suited to urban, commercial spaces.
—Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, 5 June 2025
Five decades of broken agreements have shown that side-deals and photo-ops cannot civilize a theocracy.
—Kazem Kazerounian, Hartford Courant, 29 May 2025
Colonial empires were founded upon understandings of racial hierarchy and civilizing missions.
—Alexander Cooley, Foreign Affairs, 26 Mar. 2021
See All Example Sentences for civilize
Jennifer Jolly, USA Today, 4 Sep. 2025
In this view, other European immigrants were unsuitable for civilizing the frontier—Southern Europeans were effete and decadent while Eastern European Jews were hapless in the woods and better-suited to urban, commercial spaces.
—Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, 5 June 2025
Five decades of broken agreements have shown that side-deals and photo-ops cannot civilize a theocracy.
—Kazem Kazerounian, Hartford Courant, 29 May 2025
Colonial empires were founded upon understandings of racial hierarchy and civilizing missions.
—Alexander Cooley, Foreign Affairs, 26 Mar. 2021
See All Example Sentences for civilize
Recent Examples of Synonyms for civilize
Verb
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Stanton cultivated a group of women-abolitionist friends, first at her and Henry’s home, in Boston, and then at a house that her father gave her along the new Erie Canal, in the western New York town of Seneca Falls.—
Moira Donegan,
New Yorker,
13 Mar. 2026
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Married Matt and Amber Barnett overcame a little bit of jealousy and a lot of credit card debt to cultivate a stable relationship.—
Randall Colburn,
Entertainment Weekly,
12 Mar. 2026
Verb
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If appropriate action is not taken, economic growth in urbanizing cities will continue to happen at the cost of the less fortunate.—
Chloe Wong,
Hartford Courant,
16 Mar. 2026
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Farmers in the modern world Farmers’ contribution to the Cold War shored up their cultural and political importance in a rapidly industrializing and urbanizing United States.—
Peter Simons,
The Conversation,
16 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Civilize.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/civilize. Accessed 19 Mar. 2026.
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