REVOLUTIONIZE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does revolutionize mean? 

• REVOLUTIONIZE (verb)
  The verb REVOLUTIONIZE has 3 senses:

1. change radically

2. overthrow by a revolution, of governments

3. fill with revolutionary ideas

  Familiarity information: REVOLUTIONIZE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• REVOLUTIONIZE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they revolutionize    ... he / she / it revolutionizes   
Past simple: revolutionized   
Past participle: revolutionized   
-ing form: revolutionizing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Change radically

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

overturn; revolutionise; revolutionize

Context example:

E-mail revolutionized communication in academe

Hypernyms (to "revolutionize" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

revolution (a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Overthrow by a revolution, of governments

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "revolutionize" is one way to...):

bring down; overthrow; overturn; subvert (cause the downfall of; of rulers)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

revolution (the overthrow of a government by those who are governed)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Fill with revolutionary ideas

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

inspire; revolutionise; revolutionize

Hypernyms (to "revolutionize" is one way to...):

indoctrinate (teach doctrines to; teach uncritically)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

revolution (a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving)

 Context examples 

This advance provides a new path for solving molecular structures that may revolutionize drug development.

(Near-atomic resolution of protein structure by electron microscopy holds promise for drug discovery, NIH)

Challenge to research community to revolutionize the classification of human tumors, away from classification based on morphology, toward a more clinically predictive and useful classification system based on molecular characterization of tumors.

(Molecular Classification of Tumors, NCI Thesaurus)

This artificial intelligence (AI) approach, called automated visual evaluation, has the potential to revolutionize cervical cancer screening, particularly in low-resource settings.

(AI approach outperformed human experts in identifying cervical precancer, National Institutes of Health)

A "calendar" of the past has revolutionized the dating of geologic archives, identifying ages of geologic periods based on astronomy.

(Deep-sea sediments lead to new understanding of solar system, National Science Foundation)

I don't think you have read ten pages of Spencer, but there have been critics, assumably more intelligent than you, who have read no more than you of Spencer, who publicly challenged his followers to adduce one single idea from all his writings—from Herbert Spencer's writings, the man who has impressed the stamp of his genius over the whole field of scientific research and modern thought; the father of psychology; the man who revolutionized pedagogy, so that to-day the child of the French peasant is taught the three R's according to principles laid down by him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)