Polarized

How to spell polarized

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce polarized

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does polarized mean?

1. adjectiveSplit into two sharply opposed groups or positions, with little common ground between them.
2. adjectiveOf light or radiation, confined so that its waves vibrate in a single plane or direction.
3. verbCaused a group or issue to divide into two strongly opposed sides.

Polarized in a sentence

• adjective

  The debate left the committee deeply polarized, with no compromise in sight.

• adjective

  The lenses use polarized glass to cut glare from the water.

• verb

  The leaked memo polarized the entire workforce overnight.

• adjective

  Public opinion on the new tax became badly polarized within weeks.

• adjective

  A polarized filter helped reduce the reflection on the screen.

• verb

  Her speech polarized the audience into supporters and critics.

Where does polarized come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The base sits on the Latin word polaris, meaning 'relating to a pole', which itself grew from polus, the Latin (borrowed from Greek polos) term for the pivot or end-point of an axis around which things turn. From the late 1500s English used 'polar' for the geographic and magnetic poles of the Earth. The verb 'polarize' was coined in the early 1800s in the language of physics to describe confining light waves or magnetic forces to a single direction or orientation. From there the meaning spread into everyday speech, where to polarize is to split a group into two sharply opposed camps, much as a magnet sorts iron filings toward opposite ends. The spelling trap is purely in the ending: the root is fully regular, but writers hesitate between -ized and -ised, since British convention often favours -ised while the Oxford and American convention keeps the -ized seen here.

How the word is built

• polar (from Latin polaris: relating to a pole)
• -ize (verb-forming suffix)
• -d (past tense/participle ending)

British and American spelling

Polarized is the American spelling. British English spells it polarised.