collectivize

IPA/kəˈlektɪvaɪz/
KK[kəlˈɛktɪvˌaɪz]IPA/kəˈlektɪvaɪz/

collectivize — verb

  • collectivizepresent simple I / you / we / they
  • collectivizeshe / she / it
  • collectivizedpast simple
  • collectivizing-ing form

1. to make privately owned farms, land, or businesses part of one shared system run

1.verbtransitiveC1
Definition

to make privately owned farms, land, or businesses part of one shared system run by a group or by the government

Example

After the revolution, the party collectivized thousands of small farms.

collectivize + farms/land/businesses

Officials tried to collectivize village land before the next rice harvest.

Common collocations
  • collectivize farms
  • collectivize land
  • collectivize agriculture
  • collectivize industry
  • forcibly collectivize
Synonyms
  • nationalize

    more common for a state taking formal ownership of a company or industry

  • socialize

    broader political term for putting production or services under public control

  • communalize

    stresses community ownership rather than control from a central state; much less common

Antonyms
  • privatize

    to move land or industry from state or group control into private ownership

  • decollectivize

    to break up collective ownership and return control to individual owners

Grammar Patterns

collectivize + [farm/land/industry]

be collectivized

Usage Note

Usually takes farms, land, factories, or other productive property as its object. In history and political writing, it often appears in the passive after a government has already forced the change.

Common Mistakes

Farmers collectivized with the land after the war.
The state collectivized the land after the war.
collectivize is transitive and usually takes property or industry as its direct object.
The ministry collectivized the villagers in one year.
The ministry collectivized the village farms in one year.
the verb normally refers to land, farms, or businesses, not to people themselves.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

These verbs all describe moving control away from private owners, but they point to different systems. Collectivize is used especially for land, farms, or production when many separate owners are brought into one shared system. Nationalize is narrower and focuses on the state taking legal ownership of a company or industry. Socialize can overlap in political writing, but it is broader and often emphasizes public or ideological control rather than the exact legal form. Communalize is much less common and usually suggests ownership by a local community rather than by a central government. A country might nationalize its railways, collectivize village farms, socialize health care, or communalize a forest under village management.

collectivize ↗nationalize ↗socialize ↗communalize

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • collectivize the farms
  • collectivize village land
  • move to collectivize

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

The verb was formed in English from collective plus the verb suffix -ize. Collective ultimately goes back to Latin roots meaning 'gather together'. In modern history writing, collectivize became strongly associated with socialist policies that forced private farms, land, or industries into shared ownership or state control.

First known use

1893

1893, in the meaning defined above