indigenization

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UK/ɪnˌdɪdʒənʌɪˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/

noun

The act of making something or someone more indigenous; adaptation to native or local culture.

Scrabble 25

Meanings

nounindigenization (countable and uncountable, plural indigenizations)

plural indigenizations

  1. countableuncountableThe act of making something or someone more indigenous; adaptation to native or local culture.

    An early attempt at what might now be called indigenization occurred in one of the first forts which the Portuguese built on the West African coast, Fort St George of Elmina, in what is now Ghana.

    2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 709
    1 more example

    [A] reverse process of what we might call indigenisation also occurred, in which the freed convicts and their families and their descendants took on some of the values and mentality of Aboriginal people.

    2023, Richard Flanagan, Question 7, Knopf, page 225
  2. countableuncountableThe capability to manufacture a product, or supply a service independently within a country instead of relying on foreign manufactures or suppliers.

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

indigenization. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/indigenization

MLA

“indigenization.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/indigenization. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “indigenization,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/indigenization.

Source: indigenization on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.