literalize

American  

[lit-er-uh-lahyz] / ˈlɪt ər əˌlaɪz /

especially British, literalise

verb (used with object)

literalized, literalizing

1. to make literal; interpret literally.

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Other Word Forms

• literalization noun
• literalizer noun
• unliteralized adjective

Etymology

Origin of literalize

First recorded in 1820–30; literal + -ize

Example Sentences

Flahive: There’s something about being forced to externalize things and literalize things that actually made certain things feel bigger in a way that was exciting and allowed you to be a little bit more playful.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 19, 2022

Something about Knott froze in childhood, leaving a body of work marked by the child’s tendency to literalize imaginative schemes.

From The New Yorker • Mar. 27, 2017

Jackson, whose husband spent 28 years as an entertainment writer for MacLean’s, obviously intends her stories to literalize the intimate, powerful role that icons can play in the mundane doings of the hoi polloi.

From Slate • Nov. 11, 2016

Part of what makes the “Hunger Games” books so effective is that they literalize the familiar drama of adolescence, translating the emotional assaults, peer pressure, cliques and the tortured rest into warfare.

From New York Times • Mar. 22, 2012

Whether we believe in literal fire or not, we certainly ought to ask for a reason for the Master's failure to literalize the figurative word "fire."

From The Great Doctrines of the Bible by Evans, William