Meaning & use
Ossify
Last updated
To turn into bone, or to become fixed and unable to change or develop, especially in a system of ideas or institutions.
See it in a sentence
Without regular reform, the agency's procedures began to ossify.
Cartilage in the growth plates begins to ossify during adolescence.
A note on using this word
A biology term from Latin 'ossificare' that is widely borrowed in political and social writing to criticize rigid institutions.
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