polarized
/ˈpəʊ.lə.ɹaɪzd/adjective, verb
polarized is an adjective meaning “Having a distinctive polarization” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-O-L-A-R-I-Z-E-D and has 3 syllables, and it appears 2.0 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does polarized mean?
adjective
- 1
USHaving a distinctive polarization.
- 2
USOf a group or situation, being at two or more extremes.
verb
- 1
simple past and past participle of polarize
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce polarized?
- /ˈpəʊ.lə.ɹaɪzd/
Polarized has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-polarized.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of polarized
- more polarized comparative
- most polarized superlative
- polarised UK
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is polarized?
Polarized appears 2.0 times per million words in written English, the 19,589th 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).
Words people confuse with polarized
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: polarised.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Polarized in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense having polarization:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Spanish | polarizado |
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.