Dictionary

naturalize en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˈnæt͡ʃɹəˌlaɪz/
• /ˈnæt͡ʃəɹəˌlaɪz/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle French naturaliser. By surface analysis, natural + -ize.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To grant citizenship to someone not born a citizen.
   • Pakche was destroyed and five years later, Kokuryo was also swept away by T’ang and Silla. T’ang set up An-tontu-hu-fu (Government headquarters) at P’ing jang to rule the former territories of Pakche and Kokuryo. Many refugees from these destroyed states came to Japan and became naturalized as Japanese. 1964, Japanese National Commission for UNESCO, “History”, in Japan: Its Land, People and Culture, Revised edition, Printing Bureau, Ministry of Finance, →OCLC, page 20, column 2:
2. (transitive) To acclimatize an animal or plant.
   • Its wearer suggested that pears and peaches might yet be naturalized in the New England climate. 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 8, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:
3. To make natural.
   • Custom naturalizes labour or study.
4. (transitive) To limit explanations of a phenomenon to naturalistic ones and exclude supernatural ones.
5. (transitive) To make (a word) a natural part of the language, using the native homologue of each phoneme (and often for each morpheme) of the imported word (e.g., native inflections).
   • In English, foreign words are typically written in italics until they are naturalized.
   • English speakers have naturalized the French word "café".
   • English orthography often (but not invariably) drops the diacritics from words that it has naturalized from other languages.
6. (intransitive, transitive) To study nature.
   • Well, any way, Doctor, we will make an appointment for a whole day here next spring ; we will botanize, herbarize and naturalize to our hearts' content, from morn till night." 1854, Somerton, The heiress of Somerton, page 226:

Forms

Antonyms

supernaturalize · denaturalize · exile · other · expatriate

Deriveds

renaturalize · connaturalize · naturalization · naturalizable · naturalizer · naturalized · disnaturalize

Relateds

unadapted borrowing · approximation · hyperforeignism · loanword

Synonyms

paronymize

Translations (28)

bg заимствам (linguistics: to make a natural part of a language) · fi naturalisoida (to grant citizenship) · la nātūrālizō (to grant citizenship) · hu meghonosít (linguistics: to make a natural part of a language) · es naturalizar (to grant citizenship) · fi selittää luonnollisella tavalla (to limit explanations of a phenomenon to naturalistic ones) · de einbürgern (to grant citizenship) · hu természetessé tesz (to make to natural) · pt naturalizar (to make to natural) · ro naturaliza (to grant citizenship) · ga éadaoirsigh (to grant citizenship) · sv naturalisera (to grant citizenship) · hu magától értetődővé tesz (to make to natural) · fr naturaliser (to grant citizenship) · cmn 归化 (to grant citizenship) · hi नागरिक बनाना (to grant citizenship) · fi myöntää kansalaisuus (to grant citizenship) · bg натурализирам (to grant citizenship) · ga saoránacht a thabhairt do (to grant citizenship) · mi whakatangatawhenua (to grant citizenship) · id memperalami (to make to natural) · hu honosít (to grant citizenship) · ga eadóirsigh (to grant citizenship) · fi luonnollistaa (to make to natural) · pt naturalizar (to grant citizenship) · hu állampolgárságot ad (to grant citizenship) · cmn 入籍 (to grant citizenship) · fi naturalisoida (linguistics: to make a natural part of a language)