-ize (also -ise British English) /aɪz/ suffix [in verbs]
[Language: Old French; Origin: -iser, from Late Latin -izare, from Greek -izein]

1. to make something have more of a particular quality:
We need to modernize our procedures. (=make them more modern)
Americanized spelling (=spelling made more American)
privatized transport (=bus or train services that are owned and operated by private companies)

2. to change something to something else, or be changed to something else:
The liquid crystallized (=turned into crystals).

3. to speak or think in the way mentioned:
to soliloquize (=speak a soliloquy, to yourself)
I sat and listened to him sermonizing (=speaking solemnly, as if in a sermon).

4. to put into a particular place:
She was hospitalized after the accident.

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲