naturalize

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To grant citizenship to someone not born a citizen.

2. 2

   To acclimatize an animal or plant.

   • Its wearer suggested that pears and peaches might yet be naturalized in the New England climate.
3. 3

   To make natural.

   • Custom naturalizes labour or study.
4. ›+ 3 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      To limit explanations of a phenomenon to naturalistic ones and exclude supernatural ones.

   2. 5

      To make (a word) a natural part of the language, using the native homologue of each…

      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.
   3. 6

      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."

The neighborhood

• antonymdenaturalize
• antonymexile
• antonymexpatriate
• antonymother
• antonymsupernaturalize
• neighborapproximation
• neighborhyperforeignism
• neighborloanword
• neighborunadapted borrowing