Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - ize

also -ise BrE suffix (in verbs) 1 to make something have more of a particular quality  (We need to modernize our procedures. (=make them more modern) | Americanized spelling (=spelling made more American) | privatized transport systems (=put back into private ownership)) 2 to change something to something else, or be changed to something else  (The liquid crystallized. (=turned into crystals)) 3 to speak in a particular way  (to soliloquize (=speak a soliloquy, to yourself) | I sat and listened to him sermonizing. (=speaking solemnly, as if in a sermon)) 4 to put into a particular place  (She was hospitalized after the accident.)