What does communized mean?
"Communized" is the past tense and past participle of the verb "communize," meaning to bring a country, institution, or economic sector under communist control — most characteristically by abolishing private ownership of land, factories, and businesses and placing them under state administration. The word appears most often in historical and political analysis, describing the sweeping nationalizations and collectivizations carried out across Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and Asia during the twentieth century. In broader usage it can describe placing any resource under common ownership. Because it is tied to one of the most consequential political movements of modern history, the word carries significant ideological weight: supporters may frame communization as liberation from exploitation, while critics emphasize coercion and lost freedoms. Writers typically deploy it when discussing regime change, economic transformation, or the legacy of state socialism.
verbPast tense and past participle of "communize": to make a country, institution, or system communist in character, typically through state ownership of property and the abolition of private enterprise; more broadly, to place something under common ownership or control.
- (of a state or government) to convert to communism, especially by transferring private property and industry into public or state ownership.
- (more generally) to hold or administer (something) as common property.
"After the war, the new government communized the factories and collectivized the farmland."
"The regime communized agriculture within a decade of taking power."
"Critics argued that the plan would effectively communize the nation's housing stock."
In the space of a few years after 1945, entire economies across Eastern Europe were communized — farms, factories, and banks all absorbed into state hands.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of communized
The verb derives from "commune" and ultimately from French "commun" and Latin "communis," meaning "common" or "shared by all." The related noun "communism" was popularized in mid-nineteenth-century France, and the verb form arose shortly afterward as revolutionaries and commentators sought a term for the act of establishing communal ownership. It entered English usage during the nineteenth century and became especially prominent after the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Related word forms
How communized is actually used
Primarily used in political and historical writing, often in past tense to describe transformations that occurred in the Soviet bloc, China, and elsewhere during the twentieth century. Carries strong ideological connotations depending on the writer's perspective.
Easily confused with communized
"Commuted" means to have reduced a sentence or traveled regularly between home and work, while "communized" refers to making something communist or commonly owned.