as in to exploit
disapproving
to treat (something that cannot be owned or that everyone has a right to) like a product that can be bought and sold
Do we really want to commodify our water supply? I feel like our culture is being commodified.
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of commodify
And the logic of marketing dictates that dating apps commodify people into legible archetypes for an easy sale.
—
Josh Greenblatt, WIRED, 17 July 2024
Will the drive to commodify ancient practices defile them?
—Oshan Jarow, Vox, 7 June 2024
But the pursuit of online fame, particularly through Instagram, has supercharged the often toxic phenomenon, The Times found, encouraging parents to commodify their children’s images.
—Michael H. Keller, New York Times, 23 Feb. 2024
The play isn’t subtle in presenting its allegory of national racial dysfunction—the white family’s self-absorption in the face of Black suffering, and their swift move to commodify it—but Jacobs-Jenkins’s dramatic machinery is often immensely effective.
—Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 20 Dec. 2023
See All Example Sentences for commodify
Josh Greenblatt, WIRED, 17 July 2024
Will the drive to commodify ancient practices defile them?
—Oshan Jarow, Vox, 7 June 2024
But the pursuit of online fame, particularly through Instagram, has supercharged the often toxic phenomenon, The Times found, encouraging parents to commodify their children’s images.
—Michael H. Keller, New York Times, 23 Feb. 2024
The play isn’t subtle in presenting its allegory of national racial dysfunction—the white family’s self-absorption in the face of Black suffering, and their swift move to commodify it—but Jacobs-Jenkins’s dramatic machinery is often immensely effective.
—Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 20 Dec. 2023
See All Example Sentences for commodify
Recent Examples of Synonyms for commodify
Verb
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No, the danger is what those charlatans exploit, namely our vulnerability to the narrative of natural healing, the irresistible allure of conquering cancer with a simple, intuitive approach that lies entirely within our power, no chemo or surgery required.—
Alan Levinovitz,
Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government,
28 Feb. 2025
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Large entities exploited this dynamic, leveraging economies of scale and engaging in aggressive mergers.—
Richard Menger MD MPA,
Forbes,
28 Feb. 2025
Verb
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But they had been manipulated by homeowners and businesses, and used to block all kinds of new construction.—
Benjamin Wallace-Wells,
The New Yorker,
3 Mar. 2025
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Editing concerns truly manipulating an image, making changes to particular areas, and adding content like text, shapes, or other images on top of the original.—
PCMAG,
PCMAG,
2 Mar. 2025
Verb
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Her defense attorney, Jose Baez, dropped the bombshell accusation that Casey had been abused by her father, implying that this explained her string of lies and her willingness to protect him.—
Aja Romano,
Vox,
4 Mar. 2025
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Other interview subjects said Prince was abused himself as a child and could be controlling or emotionally manipulative.—
Jon Blistein,
Rolling Stone,
4 Mar. 2025
Verb
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OpenAI, which was created as a nonprofit AI research lab in 2015, has been commercializing products in recent years, most notably its viral ChatGPT chatbot.—
Hayden Field,
CNBC,
5 Mar. 2025
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In technology, for example, commercializing innovation requires large volumes of computational power.—
David Michels,
Forbes,
28 Feb. 2025
Articles Related to commodify
Cite this Entry
“Commodify.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/commodify. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
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