Definitions For Commoditize

Verb

{{en-verb}} (US, business, transitive, proscribed) To transform into a commodity, particularly of an existing product.

Usage notes

The earlier commodify is more common, sometimes used synonymously, and sometimes considered more correct, with commoditize proscribed.{{cite-book, year=2011, isbn=9781451651348, title=Robert Hartwell Fiske’s Dictionary of Unendurable English{{..., : A Compendium of Mistakes in Grammar, Usage, and Spelling with commentary on lexicographers and linguists}}, author=Robert Hartwell Fiske, authorlink=Robert Hartwell Fiske, pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=JZqfZfIvtlsC&pg=PA99&dq=commoditize, page=99}} In other use these are distinguished, with commoditize used in business contexts to describe a market that becomes a commodity market where products are interchangeable and there is heavy price competition, while commodify is used in social contexts to mean that a non-commercial good has become commercial, typically with connotations of “corrupted by commerce” – “Microprocessors are commoditized. Love is commodified.”{{cite-web, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509025035/http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_motley_fool/1998/01/the_commoditization_conundrum.html, title=The Commoditization Conundrum, authorlink=James Surowiecki, author=James Surowiecki, date=1998-01-30, work=Slate, accessdate=2015-08-16, passage=What corporations fear is the phenomenon now known, rather inelegantly, as “commoditization.” What the term means is simply the conversion of the market for a given product into a commodity market, which is characterized by declining prices and profit margins, increasing competition, and lowered barriers to entry. (“Commoditization” is therefore different from “commodification,” the word cultural critics use to decry the corruption of higher goods by commercial values. Microprocessors are commoditized. Love is commodified.)}}{{cite-web, url=http://rushkoff.com/2005/09/04/commodified-vs-commoditized/, title=Commodified vs. Commoditized, accessdate=2008-07-21, author=Douglas Rushkoff, authorlink=Douglas Rushkoff, date=2005-09-04, work=rushkoff.com, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100221213504/http://rushkoff.com/2005/09/04/commodified-vs-commoditized/, archivedate=21 February 2010}}

Synonyms

commodify

Derived terms

commoditization

Alternative forms

{{alt, en, commoditise}}

Etymology

commodity + ize