west·ern·ize
| \ ˈwe-stər-ˌnīz
\
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westernized;
westernizing
Definition of westernize
: to imbue with qualities native to or associated with a western region and especially the noncommunist countries of Europe and America
: to become westernized
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Examples of westernize in a Sentence
He decided to westernize his name after moving from Japan to Canada.
The city has begun to westernize.
Recent Examples on the Web
But Poland has slowly westernized and moved out of Moscow’s orbit. — Alex Ward, Vox, "Poland wants a US military base in Poland. Trump might agree to it.," 18 Sep. 2018 Qiu satirizes a Taiwan that was eager to westernize in the 1980s while being increasingly arrested in time. — Ankita Chakraborty, Longreads, "A Crocodile In Paris: The Queer Classics of Qiu Miaojin," 8 June 2018 But Poland has slowly westernized and moved out of Moscow’s orbit. — Alex Ward, Vox, "Poland wants a US military base in Poland. Trump might agree to it.," 18 Sep. 2018 Qiu satirizes a Taiwan that was eager to westernize in the 1980s while being increasingly arrested in time. — Ankita Chakraborty, Longreads, "A Crocodile In Paris: The Queer Classics of Qiu Miaojin," 8 June 2018 He is widely credited for modernizing, westernizing, reforming, and rooting out corruption in Georgia. — chicagotribune.com, "Georgia's former president now a man without a state," 22 Aug. 2017 Jose Llana's King, meanwhile, never conveys a sense of how very, very dangerous an absolute monarch—even one who wants to westernize his country—can be. — Chicago Reader, "Bette Davis Ain’t for Sissies," 22 June 2017 After the Soviet collapse in 1991 ushered in 10 years of destabilizing westernizing reform, another autocratic leader who took power by chance succeeded in consolidating it by returning the country to its longstanding political roots. — Gregory Feifer, New York Times, "A New History Recalibrates the Villains of the Russian Revolution," 6 June 2017These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'westernize.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for westernize
westernize
verb
English Language Learners Definition of westernize
: to cause (someone or something) to have the qualities or characteristics that are associated with Western Europe and North America
See the full definition for westernize in the English Language Learners Dictionary