civilise
civ·il·ise/ˈsɪvɪlaɪz/verb
civilise is a verb meaning “To educate or enlighten a person or people to a perceived higher standard of behaviour” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled C-I-V-I-L-I-S-E and has 3 syllables (civ·il·ise), and it appears about once in every 25 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does civilise mean?
verb
- 1
To educate or enlighten a person or people to a perceived higher standard of behaviour.
- 2
To introduce or impose the standards of one civilisation upon another civilization, group or person, arguably with the intent of achieving a perceived higher standard of behavior.
- 3
To bring from a state of savagery to an educated or refined state.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce civilise?
- /ˈsɪvɪlaɪz/
Civilise has 3 syllables, split civ·il·ise in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-civilise.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of civilise
- civilises present, singular, he/she/it
- civilising participle, present
- civilised participle, past
- civilize
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is civilise?
Civilise appears about once in every 25 million words in written English, the 150,355th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Civilise in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to educate to a perceived higher standard of behaviour:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | civiliser |
| German | zivilisieren |
| Spanish | civilizar, desasnar, culturizar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does civilise come from?
From civil + -ise.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).