idealize

American  

[ahy-dee-uh-lahyz] / aɪˈdi əˌlaɪz /

especially British, idealise

verb (used with object)

idealized, idealizing

1. to make ideal; represent in an ideal form or character; exalt to an ideal perfection or excellence.

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verb (used without object)

idealized, idealizing

1. to represent something in an ideal form.

idealize British  

/ aɪˈdɪəˌlaɪz /

verb

1. to consider or represent (something) as ideal

2. (tr) to portray as ideal; glorify

3. (intr) to form an ideal or ideals

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Other Word Forms

• idealizer noun
• overidealize verb
• unidealized adjective

Etymology

Origin of idealize

First recorded in 1780–90; ideal + -ize

Explanation

When you idealize something, you think of it as being much better than it really is. You might idealize your beach vacation, completely forgetting that it rained almost every day. If you idealize your favorite teacher, you imagine that he's even more wonderful than he actually is. Many people tend to idealize marriage, believing that simply being married will make them and their partners blissfully happy all the time. To idealize is to take an ordinary, flawed thing, and turn it into something ideal. In fact, ideal, or "perfect," is at the heart of idealize, with its root of the Latin idealis, or "existing in idea."

Example Sentences

With a book by Jessie Nelson adapted from Adrienne Shelly‘s film script, “Waitress” has a humanizing matter-of-factness about tropes that other theatrical stories about women often idealize.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 29, 2023

“What’s important is to not make a myth or idealize anyone, including our founder. If we made a myth out of him, we were wrong,” she said.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 28, 2023

A number of Googlers I spoke with framed January’s job cuts—which took place via email—as a wake-up call for Googlers who still idealize their employer.

From Slate • Feb. 9, 2023

Haynes respects the art too much to idealize the artists, or to impose retrospective harmony on their dissonances.

From New York Times • Oct. 14, 2021

At first Fernanda did not talk about her family, but in time she began to idealize her father.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Related Words

• glorify