Centralized

How to spell centralized

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce centralized

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does centralized mean?

1. verbBrought control, power, or activity together under a single authority or location.

Centralized in a sentence

• The company centralized all of its purchasing in one regional office.

• After the merger, management centralized the payroll system to cut costs.

Where does centralized come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin centrum, meaning the fixed point of a circle or the middle of anything, which the Romans in turn borrowed from the Greek kentron, literally a sharp point or the spike of a compass used to draw a circle. From centrum came the medieval Latin and later French centralis, giving English the adjective 'central' by the seventeenth century. The verb 'centralize' was coined later, around the time of the French Revolution, when 'centraliser' described pulling administrative power into a single seat of government; English adopted it in the early 1800s in exactly that political sense. The past form 'centralized' simply adds the regular -ed ending, and the spelling preserves the full chain centr + al + ize, which is worth remembering since the unstressed middle 'a' and the -ize ending are where writers most often slip. The same kentron root still sits inside everyday words like 'centre', 'concentric' and 'eccentric'.

How the word is built

• centr- (from Latin centrum: centre point)
• -al (adjective: relating to)
• -ize (verb: to make/bring about)
• -ed (past tense/participle)

British and American spelling

Centralized is the American spelling. British English spells it centralised.