Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive & transitive verb To undergo or subject to polymerization.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To combine or cause to combine so as to form polymerides. Also spelled polymerise.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb (Chem.) To change into another substance having the same atomic proportions, but a higher molecular weight; to undergo polymerization; thus, aldehyde polymerizes in forming paraldehyde.
  • transitive verb (Chem.) To cause polymerization of; to produce polymers from; to increase the molecular weight of, without changing the atomic proportions; thus, certain acids polymerize aldehyde.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive, chemistry to convert a monomer to a polymer by polymerization
  • verb intransitive, chemistry to undergo polymerization

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb cause (a compound) to polymerize
  • verb undergo polymerization

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

polymer +‎ -ize

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word polymerize.

Examples

  • I imagined how two chemical units could be knitted together—polymerize—to form sequences.

    SuperCooperators Martin A. Nowak 2011

  • Rings with nitrogen become RNA, which can polymerize to the extent that some of them can catalyze themselves, and other molecules.

    A Sociological Phenomenon 2008

  • The monomers in its vapors polymerize in the presence of water, amines, amides, hydroxyl, and carboxylic acid—all of which happen to be found in the oils left by fingerprints.

    HOUSE RULES JODI PICOULT 2010

  • The imprints of Carboniferous ferns, horsetails, and club mosses, insects in amber, the barely perceptible bas-relief of a mollusk, cliffs colored by coccolithophorid shells, even the hydrocarbon relics of ancient plant life that humans so casually burn and polymerize — all these bear mute testimony to worlds long past.

    Archive 2008-11-01 2008

  • While waiting for RNA/DNA to polymerize out of 'the soup' into a comprehensible code there is no NS whatsoever.

    Demarcation as Politics 2006

  • The imprints of Carboniferous ferns, horsetails, and club mosses, insects in amber, the barely perceptible bas-relief of a mollusk, cliffs colored by coccolithophorid shells, even the hydrocarbon relics of ancient plant life that humans so casually burn and polymerize — all these bear mute testimony to worlds long past.

    Ex libro lapidum historia mundi 2008

  • When Fox tried to polymerize even non-racemic amino acids, he ended up making them racemic through his polymerization process.

    Ten Questions to Ask Your Biology Teacher - The Panda's Thumb 2005

  • That may sound like your usual creationist argument, but you have to manufacture the nucleotides and then polymerize them.

    New Trouble for Wells's "Icon of Anti-Evolution #1"... - The Panda's Thumb 2005

  • And the combination of heat, metal, and air oxidizes the fatty acid chains and encourages them to bond to each other (“polymerize”) to form a dense, hard, dry layer (just as linseed and other “drying oils” do on wood and on paintings).

    On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Harold McGee 2004

  • And the combination of heat, metal, and air oxidizes the fatty acid chains and encourages them to bond to each other (“polymerize”) to form a dense, hard, dry layer (just as linseed and other “drying oils” do on wood and on paintings).

    On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Harold McGee 2004

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.