Socialize

How to spell socialize

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce socialize

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does socialize mean?

1. verbTo meet and interact with other people in a friendly, informal way.
2. verbTo train a person or animal to behave in ways that society or a group accepts.

Socialize in a sentence

• The conference left plenty of time to socialize between the morning talks.

• Breeders work hard to socialize a puppy before it goes to a new home.

• Working from home, she rarely gets a chance to socialize with colleagues.

• Schools aim to socialize children into shared habits and rules.

Where does socialize come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin socius, which meant 'companion', 'partner', or 'ally', the same root that gives us 'society', 'social', and 'associate'. From socius the Romans built socialis, meaning 'of companionship' or 'allied', and English adopted 'social' from that through French in the 1500s. The verb 'socialize' was assembled later, around the early 1800s, by attaching the active suffix -ize, which descends from the Greek -izein and signals 'to make into' or 'to engage in'. Its earliest uses leaned toward 'to make social' or 'to render fit for living in society', and only later did the everyday sense of 'to mingle and chat' become dominant. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the soft 'sh' sound is written with the letters 'ci', and the ending is -ize rather than the -ise that many writers expect.

How the word is built

• soci- (from socius: companion, ally)
• -al (relating to)
• -ize (verb-forming suffix: to make or do)

British and American spelling

Socialize is the American spelling. British English spells it socialise.