institutionalise
/,insti'tju:ʃənəlaiz/ Cách viết khác : (institutionalise) /,insti'tju:ʃənəlaiz/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Verb:
- To place or confine (a person) in an institution, especially for care, treatment, or custody: The primary meaning refers to the act of officially admitting someone into a structured establishment like a hospital, prison, or care home, often for a long period.
- To establish as a norm or convention within an organization or society: A secondary, more figurative meaning refers to making a practice, procedure, or pattern an accepted and permanent feature within a system.
Usage and Examples
- Verb (Placing in an institution):
- The court decided to institutionalise the patient for her own safety and treatment.
- In the past, families sometimes felt pressured to institutionalise elderly relatives.
- Verb (Establishing as a norm):
- The company sought to institutionalise ethical practices at every level of management.
- The new policy aims to institutionalise regular feedback sessions.
Advanced Usage and Notes
- The verb often carries a formal or bureaucratic connotation when referring to placing a person in an institution.
- In its figurative sense, it describes a process of embedding something so it becomes standard and routine.
- The spelling institutionalize is equally correct and more common in American English.
Variants and Related Words
- Institutionalisation (noun, UK spelling): The process or end result of being placed in an institution or of becoming an established norm.
- The institutionalisation of the elderly is a complex social issue.
- The institutionalisation of these procedures took several years.
- Institutional (adjective): Relating to or characteristic of an institution.
- They faced institutional barriers.
- Institution (noun): An established organization or a long-standing custom.
- Banks are key financial institutions.
Synonyms
- Commit: To send or admit to an institution (e.g., ).
- Confine: To keep or restrict someone within certain limits.
- Formalize: To make official or conventional (closer to the figurative sense).
- Standardize: To cause to conform to a standard.
Antonyms
- Deinstitutionalise: To remove (a person) from an institution and place them in a community-based setting.
- Liberate: To set free from confinement.
- Abolish: To formally put an end to (a system or practice).
Related Phrases and Concepts
- "To become institutionalised": This phrase can describe a person who has become so accustomed to life in a restrictive institution that they cannot function outside of it. It can also refer to a practice becoming an unchangeable fixture.
- After decades in prison, he feared he had become institutionalised.
- Bureaucratic red tape had become institutionalised within the department.
Verb
- cause to be admitted; of persons to an institution
- After the second episode, she had to be committed
- he was committed to prison