externalize

[ ik-stur-nl-ahyz ]

verb (used with object)

, ex·ter·nal·ized, ex·ter·nal·iz·ing.

1. to make external; embody in an outward form.
2. to regard as consisting of externals.
3. to regard or treat as being caused by externals; attribute to external causes:

   to externalize one's difficulties.

4. to direct (the personality) outward in social relationships.

externalize

/ ɪkˈstɪərɪəˌraɪz; ɪkˈstɜːnəˌlaɪz /

verb

1. to make external; give outward shape to
2. psychol to attribute (one's own feelings) to one's surroundings

Derived Forms

• exˌternaliˈzation, noun

Other Words From

• nonex·ternal·ized adjective
• semi·ex·ternal·ized adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of externalize¹

First recorded in 1850–55; external + -ize

Example Sentences

The grisi siknis acts as a way for them to externalize their distress and express the need for help without having to have that awkward conversation or without having to be explicit about what the exact problem is.

From Nautilus

Yet the discovery that experiences and knowledge can be implanted or externalized has also given memory a different meaning.

From MIT Technology Review

We can report that driving around in circles really fast is fun if you don’t think at all about the externalized costs.

From ProPublica

This score is thought to reflect a person’s “internalizing” liability to develop anxiety and mood disorders, an “externalizing” liability, such as to abuse drugs and break laws, and a propensity to delusions and other forms of psychotic thinking.

From Science News

Here’s one individual, one human, who was particularly capable and productive, but could create all this externalized information.

From Nautilus

You cannot perform or externalize your vanity as overtly as Bieber did without again emphasizing to the world you are a jerk.

From The Daily Beast

A change of will can always manifest itself in action but it is very difficult to externalize convincingly a mere change of heart.

From Project Gutenberg

Then live these in your mind, making no room for unclean thought, and you will externalize them in your body.

From Project Gutenberg

Gora Dwight had told him that he must learn to "externalize his emotions," and he felt that here was the supreme opportunity.

From Project Gutenberg

We encounter language as we continuously externalize our biological and cultural identities in the act of living as human beings.

From Project Gutenberg

Ideas express the implicit will of the human being to externalize them (what Marcuse called "the imperative quality" of thought).

From Project Gutenberg