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decentralize.

To cause to change from being concentrated at one point or site to being distributed across several.

12 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/diːˈsɛntɹəlaɪz/Received-Pronunciation/diˈsɛntɹəˌlaɪz/Canada, General-American/diːˈsentɹəlɑez/Australia/diːˈsentɹəlaɪz/New-Zealand

  1. To cause to change from being concentrated at one point or site to being distributed across several.

    transitive
    decentralize operations

  2. To reduce the authority of (a governing body) by distributing that authority among several bodies.

    transitive
    decentralize authority
    decentralize decision-making

  3. To become decentralized.

    intransitive

  4. To bring (a suspect) to the ground by use of directed force; to tackle.

    US
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *de Proto-Indo-European *-h₁ Proto-Indo-European *déh₁ Proto-Italic *dē Latin dē Latin dē-der. English de- Proto-Indo-European *ḱen-? Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *-trom Proto-Indo-European *ḱéntrom Proto-Hellenic *kéntron Ancient Greek κέντρον (kéntron)bor. Latin centrum Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Latin centrālisbor. English central Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor. Late Latin -izōder. Middle French -iserbor. Middle English -isen English -ize English centralize English decentralize From de- + centralize.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.