ANIMALIZE Synonyms: 33 Similar and Opposite Words

animalize

verb

ˈa-nə-mə-ˌlīz

Definition of animalize

as in to poison

to make (someone) feel or behave more like an animal than a human being six months of solitary living in the jungle would animalize anyone

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of animalize Sociologist Anthony Cortese found that in popular culture black women are often othered, animalized and exoticized, associating women of color with primitivity or wild sexuality. — Katie Edwards, Washington Post, 14 July 2017

Recent Examples of Synonyms for animalize

Verb

Plus, some samples of Martian soil contain high levels of perchlorates, toxic chemical compounds, also found in rocket fuel, that could potentially poison the planet’s supplies of water and food.

— Brian Gallagher, Scientific American, 2 Oct. 2026
Could something so commonplace really be slowly poisoning people?

— Sean McCann, The Conversation, 28 Sep. 2026

Definition of poison

Verb

This caution is surprising in a writer who has elsewhere been fearless about identity and America, attentive to the country’s institutional capacity to humiliate, compromise, and implicate the people who claim it.

— Zain Khalid, Vulture, 1 Oct. 2026
But the Saudis, humiliated by their losses in Yemen, seem likely to lash out.

— Kareem Fahim, New Yorker, 19 Sep. 2026

Definition of humiliate

Verb

Palestinians have been systematically dehumanized, along with the broader Arab and Muslim world, to serve the foreign policy objectives of governments without questioning the moral and legal implications.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 2 Oct. 2026
The legal system dehumanizes her, the support group confuses her, and one of her friends painfully disappoints her.

— Carey Purcell, Vogue, 2 Oct. 2026

Definition of dehumanize

Verb

Allegations of abuse, inmates being brutalized by jailers, and dire conditions have plagued the facility for years, leading some county leaders, former sheriffs and civil rights advocates to call for the jail to be closed.

— James Queally, Los Angeles Times, 9 Sep. 2026
Because they’ve been brutalized by the same machinery of repression.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 2 Sep. 2026

Definition of brutalize

Browse Nearby Words

animality

animalize

animalized

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Style

“Animalize.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/animalize. Accessed 10 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of animalize

verb

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