Normalize Meaning
/ˈnɔː.mə.laɪz/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
verbTo make normal, to bring into alignment with an established standard.
verbTo consider normal, to treat as standard in the face of older norms.
Sentence Examples
Don't normalize reactionary extremists by calling them "conservatives."
It's really important for Algeria to normalize its relations with the West.
Normalize eating all the crust before the rest of the sandwich.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The new policy aims to ____ the situation and bring lasting peace.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The government took several steps to help ____ the economy after the financial crisis.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Latin norma Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Latin nōrmālisder. English normal Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íďďō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor. Late Latin -izōder. Middle French -iserbor. Middle English -isen English -ize English normalize From normal + -ize.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Advocacy groups have long known the power of TV plot lines. Back in the 1980s, the Harvard School of Public Health mounted a campaign to normalize the idea of a “designated driver” to reduce drunk driving."
— 2014 March 27, Robin Marantz Henig, “Fictional Plotlines and Real Assisted Suicide”, in The Atlantic:
"Whether or not the Trump administration moves ahead, officials and observers say the proposal has normalized the forcible transfer of Palestinians – classified as “ethnic cleansing” and a “war crime” by the United Nations."
— 2025 February 6, Taylor Luck, Ghada Abdulfattah, “How Trump’s proposed plan for Gaza has united an outraged Arab world”, in The Christian Science Monitor:
"The Dice coefficient normalizes for length by dividing by the total number of non-zero entries. We multiply by 2 so that we get a measure that ranges from 0.0 to 1.0 with 1.0 indicating identical vectors."
— 1991, Christopher D. Manning, Hinrich Schütze, Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, →ISBN, page 299:
"It is possible that electrical stimulation may also act centrally, neuromodulating the altered muscle contractibility mechanism, recruiting a larger number of muscle fibers and normalizing the tone of the masticatory, hyoid and pharyngeal muscles [38 ,39 ]."
— 2015 August 7, “Effects of Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation on the Masticatory Muscles and Physiologic Sleep Variables in Adults with Cerebral Palsy: A Novel Therapeutic Approach”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI:
"Charpy impact testing showed that the normalized steel in the tank shell of the punctured chlorine car had a fracture toughness that was significantly greater than the fracture toughness of the non-normalized steels of the catastrophically ruptured tank cars involved in the derailment of a Canadian Pacific Railway freight train in Minot, North Dakota, in January 2002. The steel in the Minot tank cars exhibited relatively low fracture toughness, and cracks propagated rapidly around the circumference of each tank. The higher fracture toughness in the Graniteville tank car contributed to the relatively quick arrest of the crack even though there was brittle fracture in its outer portions."
— 2005 November 29, National Transportation Safety Board, “Tank Car Crashworthiness”, in Collision of Norfolk Southern Freight Train 192 With Standing Norfolk Southern Local Train P22 With Subsequent Hazardous Materials Release at Graniteville, South Carolina, January 6, 2005, archived from the original on 17 Jun 2022, page 50:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The new policy aims to ____ the situation and bring lasting peace.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The government took several steps to help ____ the economy after the financial crisis.