Meanings
- uncountableThe process of making something chemical, or adapting it to use chemical methods.
the chemicalization of agriculture
1 more example
She would almost certainly have to be on more than one drug and almost certainly the dosages of all of them would have to be high […] So her system has to pay the price of having to adapt to such a degree of chemicalization.
1985, R. D. Laing, Wisdom, Madness and Folly, page 22 - uncountablespiritualityInner conflict caused by one's initial resistance to spiritual awakening.
Origin
From chemical + -ization. The spiritual sense was used by Mary Baker Eddy (then known as Mary Baker Glover) as early as 1875, in the first edition of Science and Health: “This chemicalization, or change, often follows our explanations of science, the effect of which is that the patient recovers; disease comes to the surface during the chemicalization, like a fermenting fluid, and throws itself off, sometimes in violent perspiration, eruptions, increased secretions, and discharges." p.176. More recent use, with definition: 1906 (current) edition of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: "By chemicalization I mean the process which mortal mind and body undergo in the change of belief from a material to a spiritual basis." p 168. In the spirituality sense, recently further popularised by Catherine Ponder.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
chemicalization. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chemicalization
“chemicalization.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chemicalization. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “chemicalization,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chemicalization.
Source: chemicalization on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.