Definition of "-ize" []

• To cause to be or to become: dramatize. (suffix)
• To cause to conform to or resemble: Hellenize. (suffix)
• To treat as: idolize. (suffix)
• To treat or affect with: anesthetize. (suffix)
• To subject to: tyrannize. (suffix)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "And although Sarah Churchwell's assertion (A neologism thang, innit, 10 May) that the -ize spelling is "much-maligned (in Britain)" may be true in some quarters, it isn't here at Oxford, where -ize remains, as it always has been, the preferred form."