as in to exploit
disapproving
to treat (something that cannot be owned or that everyone has a right to) like a product that can be bought and sold
Do we really want to commodify our water supply? I feel like our culture is being commodified.
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Recent Examples of commodify
Or will the troves of data being amassed on nonhuman animals be used to further commodify and objectify them?
—
David Gruber, Time, 24 Apr. 2025
Publicis and other advertising firms argue that these new AI tools makes marketing more relevant to customers and less wasteful, but regulators — particularly in Europe — remain wary of systems that commodify vast amounts of personal data.
—Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 20 Mar. 2025
If the sole aim of a company is to profit, extraction and exploitation become the norm as businesses seek new resources to commodify
The theory of shareholder wealth maximization has, in recent years, been met with significant scrutiny.
—Aissa Dearing, JSTOR Daily, 9 Jan. 2025
Far from democratizing creativity, these projects frequently centralize authority and commodify the works of individual creators.
—Virginie Berger, Forbes, 17 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for commodify
David Gruber, Time, 24 Apr. 2025
Publicis and other advertising firms argue that these new AI tools makes marketing more relevant to customers and less wasteful, but regulators — particularly in Europe — remain wary of systems that commodify vast amounts of personal data.
—Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 20 Mar. 2025
If the sole aim of a company is to profit, extraction and exploitation become the norm as businesses seek new resources to commodify
The theory of shareholder wealth maximization has, in recent years, been met with significant scrutiny.
—Aissa Dearing, JSTOR Daily, 9 Jan. 2025
Far from democratizing creativity, these projects frequently centralize authority and commodify the works of individual creators.
—Virginie Berger, Forbes, 17 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for commodify
Recent Examples of Synonyms for commodify
Verb
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Ramaphosa accused these groups of exploiting migration anxieties to sow division through lawlessness and violence.—
Tiisetso Motsoeneng,
semafor.com,
8 June 2026
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This feels less like a billing problem and more like a system failure that the company is exploiting.—
Christopher Elliott,
Mercury News,
8 June 2026
Verb
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That echoes findings of a delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which visited Yerevan in May and said foreign interference included illicit political financing, cyberattacks, economic coercion and direct attempts to manipulate the electoral process.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
6 June 2026
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The number then becomes harder to interpret and easier to manipulate.—
James Broughel,
Forbes.com,
6 June 2026
Verb
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Moreover, the states often abused their authority, both over their own citizens and with regard to each other.—
Jordan Cash,
The Conversation,
8 June 2026
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And did the court abuse its discretion by imposing the 60-year minimum?—
Tom Olsen,
Twin Cities,
8 June 2026
Verb
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Microsoft does not plan to commercialize either device.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
2 June 2026
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And in China, Feng Fan cofounded Yanhe Technology to commercialize solar cells from perovskites, a thin, ultra-efficient material that can be coated onto flexible surfaces or screens and generate power in low-light conditions.—
Yue Wang,
Forbes.com,
27 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Commodify.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/commodify. Accessed 10 Jun. 2026.
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