satirize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of satirize
Explanation
When you cleverly make fun of something, you satirize it. Political cartoons, for example, satirize current events and politicians using clever drawings and captions. When a writer criticizes something using humor, she satirizes it. Playwrights and filmmakers often satirize ridiculous social customs by reflecting them in exaggerated ways, for example. Ideally, when an artist satirizes society, she hopes to encourage positive changes by making people feel ashamed or embarrassed. The root of satirize is the noun satire, which in classical Latin meant a kind of poem that "ridiculed vice or folly."
Vocabulary lists containing satirize
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But in her novel, rather than satirize or steamroll, Shriver takes her open-armed and open-borders characters as seriously and empathetically as her anti-immigration ones.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 31, 2026
Her prose is infectiously funny, and her ability to satirize rich people paying silly amounts of money to be led to their souls has only sharpened.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 26, 2025
Just two years after “Cruise” debuted, duo Maddie & Tae had heard enough about arm candy and daisy dukes to satirize the subgenre’s views on women with 2015’s “Girl in a Country Song.”
From Salon • May 16, 2025
The fourth deals with a witch, giving them a chance to satirize conspiracy theorists.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 28, 2024
And there is always the non-productive brotherhood of critics to disparage and to satirize, to view with horror and contempt.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
