Motorized

How to spell motorized

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce motorized

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does motorized mean?

1. adjectiveEquipped with or driven by a motor rather than relying on muscle or manual power.

Motorized in a sentence

• The warehouse uses a motorized conveyor to move heavy pallets.

• His grandfather still remembers when the regiment switched from horses to motorized transport.

Where does motorized come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word builds on 'motor', which English took directly from the Latin motor, meaning 'a mover' or 'one who sets in motion', itself formed from the verb movere, 'to move'. For centuries 'motor' simply named anything that produced movement, but by the late nineteenth century it had attached firmly to the new petrol and electric engines driving carriages and machines. The verb 'motorize', meaning to fit something with an engine or to convert it to powered transport, emerged in the early twentieth century, and it became especially common in military contexts when armies replaced horses with engine-driven vehicles. The form 'motorized' is the adjective and past tense, with the -ize ending reflecting the Greek-derived verb suffix -izein that Latin and later English adopted to mean 'to make into' or 'to equip with'. The spelling trap lies in that unstressed final syllable, where the -ized can be heard as a soft 'd' and where British writers must also weigh the -ise alternative they meet daily.

How the word is built

• motor (engine, mover)
• -ize (verb-forming suffix)
• -ed (past participle/adjective)

British and American spelling

Motorized is the American spelling. British English spells it motorised.