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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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of commodify
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
This refers to the societal tendency to commodify every aspect of life, often to the detriment of authenticity and human connection.
—Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, 11 Dec. 2024
Critics argue these policies effectively commodify citizenship, potentially undermining social cohesion.
—David Faris, Newsweek, 2 Nov. 2024
See All Example Sentences for commodify
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
This refers to the societal tendency to commodify every aspect of life, often to the detriment of authenticity and human connection.
—Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, 11 Dec. 2024
Critics argue these policies effectively commodify citizenship, potentially undermining social cohesion.
—David Faris, Newsweek, 2 Nov. 2024
See All Example Sentences for commodify
Recent Examples of Synonyms for commodify
Verb
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Whether climate denial, corporate lobbying or inequitable wealth distribution, our systems often reward those who can exploit the system without regard for their impact on long-term system health.—
Maureen Metcalf,
Forbes.com,
4 June 2025
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Only in these areas will humanitarian aid be provided—by an American company under direct Israeli security arrangements—to avoid previous distribution arrangements that were exploited by Hamas.—
Assaf Orion,
Foreign Affairs,
3 June 2025
Verb
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All platforms manipulate users to keep them scrolling.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
23 May 2025
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Attackers can design prompts that insert malicious instructions through seemingly innocent prompts, manipulate the model to reset its understanding of its role or subtly influence the model's output by feeding misleading information or context.—
Etay Maor,
Forbes.com,
23 May 2025
Verb
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The bill was named after Trey Carlock, a Dallas native who died by suicide in 2019 at the age of 28 after being abused by a Missouri summer camp director.—
Eleanor Dearman,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
27 May 2025
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Two tribal nations filed a lawsuit saying that the federal government used the trust fund money of tribes to pay for boarding schools where generations of Native children were systematically abused.—
Graham Lee Brewer,
Los Angeles Times,
24 May 2025
Verb
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The proliferation of strong offerings from international universities demonstrate the battleground, where universities are increasingly commercialized, and students are the consumers.—
Dr. Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj,
Forbes.com,
26 May 2025
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Autonomous vehicle technology has been hard to commercialize, with tight regulations and heavy investments forcing many companies to give up.—
Akash Sriram,
USA Today,
22 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Commodify.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/commodify. Accessed 10 Jun. 2025.
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