Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Sterilize |
SterilizeVerb1. Make free from bacteria. 2. Make infertile; of both males and females. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Note: Sterilize \Ster"il*ize\, transitive verb. [imperative past participle Sterilized; present participle verb or noun Sterilizing.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definition |
Military & Defense | In naval mine warfare, to permanently render a mine incapable of firing, by means of a device(e. g. sterilizer)within the mine. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: SterilizeSynonyms: desex (v), desexualize (v), fix (v), sterilise (v), unsex (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Impotence | Unman, unnerve, enervate; emasculate, castrate, geld, alter, neuter, sterilize, fix. |
Preservation | Embalm, cure, salt, pickle, season, kyanize, bottle, pot, tin, can; sterilize, pasteurize, radiate; dry, lyophilize, freeze-dry, concentrate, evaporate; freeze, quick-freeze, deep-freeze; husband; (store). |
Unproductiveness | Sterilize, addle; disable, inactivate. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Hey! We're supposed to use that to sterilize wounds. (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer) | |
Clever | Why do they sterilize the needles for lethal injections? (references; author: unknown) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | [Visiting nurse shows mother how to sterilize baby bottles]. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Other technologies used to sterilize fruits, spices and medical devices use toxic chemicals, such as ethylene oxide. (references) | |
Similar technology is used to sterilize medical devices so they can be used in surgery or implanted without risk of infection. (references) | ||
In addition irradiation is widely used to sterilize a variety of medical and household products, from hip joint implants to bandaids and baby pacifiers. (references) | ||
Human Rights | Japan | There were no new developments in the longstanding effort by groups representing women and persons with disabilities to obtain a government investigation, a formal apology, and compensation in the case of the several thousand women with disabilities who were sterilized without their consent between 1949-92. A law that the Government revoked in 1996 permitted doctors, after they had received the approval of committees appointed by local governments, to sterilize persons with mental or physical disabilities or certain hereditary diseases without consent. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Sterilize" is generally used as a lexical verb (base form) -- approximately 55.56% of the time. "Sterilize" is used about 9 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 55.56% | 5 | 157,705 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 44.44% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Total | 100.00% | 9 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
sterilize | 8 |
sterilize baby bottle | 6 |
soil sterilize | 3 |
clean jewerly sterilize tounge | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "sterilize"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | sterilizoj (scald), e bëj shterp. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | عقم (disinfect, futility, sanitize, scald, sterility, vainness), طهر (circumcise, decontaminate, depurate, disinfect, exorcise, exorcize, mop up, pureness, purge, purify, rid, sanitize, scour, show, sweeten), جدب (poverty, sterility, waterless). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | стерилизирам, обезплодявам. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 消炎 (sterilise, sterilised, sterilized, Sterilizing), 消' (disinfect). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | sterilizovat (scald). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | sterilisere en mine. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | steriliseren (sterilisation, sterilization, to disinfect, to sterilize). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | steriligi. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | نازاکردن , سترون کردن , بی باریابی حاصل کردن . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | steriloida. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | stériliser (to sterilize), stérilisation (sterilization). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | sterilisieren (neuter, process, spay). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | αποστειρώνω (sterilise). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | לעקר (castrate, emasculate, mutilate), לחטא (disinfect, scald). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | sterilizálás (asepsis, sterilization), sterilizál (to sterilize), terméketlenné tesz, mûködõképtelenség beállítása. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | mensucihamakan (make germ-free), awahama (disinfect). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | sterilizzare (spay). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 包帯'煮沸消'する (to sterilize the bandage by boiling it). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 살 하십시" (sterilise). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | shiastey (dry, sterilization), jannoo shiast (sterilization), amridaghey (sterilization). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | erilizestay esterilizar (autoclave, scald, spay). (various references) steriliza. (various references) стерилизовать. (various references) sterilisati, uništiti bakterije. (various references) esterilizar (asepticize). (various references) sterilisera (spay). (various references) sterilize etmek, verimsizleştirmek (emaciate, impoverish), mikroplardan arındırmak (disinfect), kısırlaştırmak (alter, caponize, castrate, have it neutered, have it spayed, neuter, spay, unman). (various references) стерилізувати, робити марним (frustrate, negative), вихолощувати (emasculate), знепліднювати. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "sterilize": sterilized, sterilizer, sterilizers, sterilizes. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "sterilize": presterilize. (additional references) | |
Words containing "sterilize": presterilized, presterilizes, unsterilized. (additional references) | |
| |
"Sterilize" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: sterelize, sterilise. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "sterilize" (pronounced ste"rulī'z) |
| 6 | -e" r u l ī' z | paralyze. |
| 5 | -r u l ī' z | centralize, decentralize, demoralize, hydrolyze, moralize, neutralize. |
| 4 | -u l ī' z | actualize, alkalies, analyze, annualize, brutalize, cannibalize, capitalize, caramelize, catalyze, civilize, collateralize, commercialize, compartmentalize, criminalize, crystallize, deinstitutionalize, demobilize, denationalize, departmentalize, depersonalize, destabilize, editorialize, equalize, evangelize, federalize, fertilize, fictionalize, finalize, formalize, fossilize, generalize, globalize, hospitalize, idolize, industrialize, internalize, internationalize, legalize, liberalize, localize, marginalize, materialize, memorialize, metabolize, mineralize, mobilize, monopolize, nationalize, naturalize, normalize, penalize, personalize, professionalize, radicalize, rationalize, recapitalize, regionalize, renationalize, revitalize, scandalize, serialize, socialize, specialize, stabilize, symbolize, tantalize, tranquilize, trivialize, underutilize, utilize, vandalize, verbalize, visualize. |
| 3 | -l ī' z | butterflies, creolize, fireflies, gadflies, idealize, multiplies, realize, stylize. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-e-i-i-l-r-s-t-z" | |
-2 letters: leister, retiles, seltzer, siltier, sterile, zestier. | |
-3 letters: elites, listee, lister, liters, litres, relets, relies, relist, resile, resite, resize, reties, retile, ritzes, seizer, sizier, streel, tilers, zester. | |
-4 letters: elite, ester, islet, istle, leers, leets, liers, liter, litre, reels, reest, relet, relit, reset, retie, riels, riles, rites, seize, siree, sizer, sleet, slier, steel, steer, stele. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-e-i-i-l-r-s-t-z" | |
+1 letter: fertilizes, reutilizes, sterilized, sterilizer, sterilizes. | |
+2 letters: fertilizers, literalizes, relativizes, restabilize, revitalizes, sterilizers. | |
+3 letters: detribalizes, internalizes, legitimizers, materializes, orientalizes, overutilizes, presterilize, restabilized, restabilizes, unsterilized. | |
+4 letters: demilitarizes, editorializes, materializers, presterilized, presterilizes, recapitalizes, rehospitalize, remilitarizes, underutilizes. | |
+5 letters: dematerializes, derealizations, despiritualize, editorializers, immaterializes, overfertilizes, presterilizing, reacclimatizes, rehospitalized, rehospitalizes, rematerializes, renationalizes, respiritualize, revolutionizes, theatricalizes, ventriloquizes. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
