vandalise
van·dal·ise/ˈvændəlaɪz/verb
vandalise is a verb meaning “To needlessly destroy or deface other people’s property or public property; to commit vandalism” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled V-A-N-D-A-L-I-S-E and has 3 syllables (van·dal·ise), and it appears about once in every 19 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does vandalise mean?
verb
- 1
To needlessly destroy or deface other people’s property or public property; to commit vandalism.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce vandalise?
- /ˈvændəlaɪz/
Vandalise has 3 syllables, split van·dal·ise in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-NaomiAmethyst-vandalise.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of vandalise
- vandalises present, singular, he/she/it
- vandalising participle, present
- vandalised participle, past
- vandalize US
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is vandalise?
Vandalise appears about once in every 19 million words in written English, the 133,440th 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).
Vandalise in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to needlessly destroy:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | vandaliser |
| German | vandalisieren, mutwillig zerstören |
| Portuguese | vandalizar |
| Spanish | vandalizar |
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 vandalise come from?
From vandal + -ise.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).