Communizes

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To establish or organize a society or system based on communal ownership and the absence of private property; to implement communist principles in social, economic, or political structures; to promote collective control over resources and means of production
2. To convert or transform a group or area into one governed by communal equality and shared ownership; to apply doctrines that emphasize the abolition of private assets and centralized planning; to spread ideas advocating for common ownership and joint management of goods and services
3. To bring about the practice of collective ownership of land and industry; to instate governance shaped by the ideology rejecting private property; to influence or persuade communities to adopt a system where resources and production are collectively managed

Etymology: "Communizes" is the third-person singular present form of "communize," so the story belongs to its base verb, which is built from "commune" and the suffix "-ize." The suffix, from Greek "-izein," turns a noun or adjective into a verb meaning to make, make like, or act upon in a certain way, so "to communize" means to make something common or collective. Verbs formed this way, such as "socialize" or "modernize," follow the same pattern. The root "commune" comes from Old French "comun," which traces back to Latin "communis," meaning shared by all or belonging to many. That Latin root also gave English "common," so "communize" and "common" are close relatives that took different routes into English. The newer sense of "commune" as a collective of people sharing property and labor came later and gave the verb its political edge.

Synonyms: collectivizes, socializes

Antonyms: privatizes, capitalizes