democratize

English

Alternative forms

• democratise

Etymology

From French démocratiser. By surface analysis, democrat(ic) +‎ -ize.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɪˈmɒkɹətaɪz/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American, Atlantic Canada) IPA^(key): /dɪˈmɑkɹətaɪz/
• (Canada, US dialects) IPA^(key): /dɪˈmɒkɹətaɪz/
• (Australia) IPA^(key): /dɪˈmɔkɹətɑez/

Verb

democratize (third-person singular simple present democratizes, present participle democratizing, simple past and past participle democratized) (transitive)

2. (strictly) To make democratic.
   • 2026, “Unraveling The Democratic Era?”, in V-Dem Institute‎^[1], archived from the original on 17 March 2026, pages 7, 18, 29:

     Three distinct patterns within this wave are clear: Democratic backsliding in some traditionally stable democracies; significant reversals and often breakdown of democracy in countries that successfully democratized during the late 20th and early 21st centuries; and deepening of autocracy in already autocratic states. […] The number of autocratizing countries (red line) increases from the mid-1990s-early 2000s, to surpass the number of democratizing countries in 2012. […] Montenegro started to democratize with the 2020 elections ending nearly three decades of rule by the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro (DPS).

4. (loosely) To broaden access to (something), especially for the sake of egalitarianism.

Derived terms

• democratizable
• democratization
• democratizer
• redemocratize
• undemocratize
• undemocratized

Translations

to make democratic

• Albanian: demokratizoj (sq)
• Arabic: مَقْرَطَ (maqraṭa), دَقْرَطَ (daqraṭa), دَمَقْرَطَ (damaqraṭa) (proscribed)
• Armenian: ռամկավարացնել (ṙamkavaracʻnel) (Western Armenian), ժողովրդավարացնել (hy) (žoġovrdavaracʻnel)
• Asturian: democratizar (ast)
• Azerbaijani: demokratikləşdirmək
• Belarusian: дэмакратызава́ць impf or pf (demakratyzavácʹ)
• Bulgarian: демократизи́рам impf or pf (demokratizíram)
• Catalan: democratitzar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 民主化 (zh) (mínzhǔhuà)

• Czech: demokratizovat impf or pf
• Danish: demokratisere
• Dutch: democratiseren (nl)
• Estonian: demokratiseerima
• Finnish: kansanvaltaistaa (fi), demokratisoida (fi)
• French: démocratiser (fr)
• Galician: democratizar (gl)
• Georgian: გადემოკრატიულება (gademoḳraṭiuleba)
• German: demokratisieren (de)
• Greek: εκδημοκρατίζω (el) (ekdimokratízo)
• Hungarian: demokratizál (hu)
• Irish: daonlathaigh, déan daonlathach
• Italian: democratizzare (it)
• Japanese: 民主化する (ja) (みんしゅかする, minshuka suru)
• Korean: 민주화(民主化)하다 (minjuhwahada)
• Latvian: demokratizēt
• Lithuanian: demokratizuoti
• Macedonian: демократизи́ра impf or pf (demokratizíra)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: ардчилах (mn) (ardčilax)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: demokratisere

• Occitan: democratizar
• Polish: demokratyzować (pl) impf, zdemokratyzować (pl) pf
• Portuguese: democratizar (pt)
• Romanian: a democratiza (ro)
• Russian: демократизи́ровать (ru) impf or pf (demokratizírovatʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: демократизи́рати impf or pf, демократизовати impf or pf

  Latin: demokratizírati (sh) impf or pf, demokratizovati impf or pf

• Slovak: demokratizovať impf or pf
• Slovene: demokratizirati impf or pf
• Spanish: democratizar (es)
• Swedish: demokratisera (sv)
• Turkish: demokratikleştirmek (tr)
• Turkmen: demokratiýalaşdyrmak
• Ukrainian: демократизува́ти impf or pf (demokratyzuváty)
• Uyghur: دېموكراتىيەلەشتۈرمەك (dëmokratiyeleshtürmek)
• Uzbek: demokratlashtirmoq (uz)
• Vietnamese: dân chủ hoá (民主化)
• Yiddish: דעמאָקראַטיזירן (demokratizirn)

Anagrams

• octamerized

Galician

Verb

democratize

1. (reintegrationist norm) inflection of democratizar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Portuguese

Verb

democratize

1. inflection of democratizar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative