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Synonyms

beatify

American  
[bee-at-uh-fahy] / biˈæt əˌfaɪ /

verb (used with object)

  • beatifies,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • beatified,
    past participle,  past
  • beatifying
    present participle
  1. to make blissfully happy.

  2. Roman Catholic Church. to declare (a deceased person) to be among the blessed and therefore entitled to local but not universal veneration.


beatify British  
/ bɪˈætɪˌfaɪ /

verb

  1. (tr) RC Church (of the pope) to declare formally that (a deceased person) showed a heroic degree of holiness in his or her life and therefore is worthy of public veneration: the first step towards canonization

  2. (tr) to make extremely happy

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

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Inflected Forms

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Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of beatify

First recorded in 1525–35; from Middle French beatifier, from Late Latin beātificāre; see beatific ( def. )

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.

See Examples For:

The service to beatify Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma and their seven children will be held on Sunday in the Polish town of Markowa where they died in March 1944.

From Reuters ● Sep. 5, 2023

On Sunday, Pope Francis will beatify John Paul I, the last formal step before possible sainthood.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 31, 2022

During the decades-long wait for the Vatican to beatify the doctor, many Venezuelans were lighting candles in his name and placing images of him on their personal altars.

From New York Times ● Aug. 1, 2021

On the final day of his four-day visit to Britain, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass to beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman, the 19th century Anglican convert.

From Washington Times ● Sep. 19, 2020

It is an innate element of the human constitution, designed to beautify and beatify man.

From Continental Monthly, Vol. III, No IV, April 1863 Devoted to Literature and National Policy by Various

We’d be fools to believe that switching to another early-morning exercise class, or picking a new favorite set of superheroes, or forgoing Bean Boots this fall, automatically beatifies us.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 12, 2019

They rescue creatures from the trash — a salvation from a sad death that eternally beatifies bird and beast.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2018

Murnane’s is a vision that blesses and beatifies every detail.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 28, 2018

Pope Francis will pay tribute to some of South Korea's first Catholics when he beatifies 124 Korean Catholics who died in the 18th and 19th Centuries.

From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2014

They had two meals with Carol's sister, and were bored, and felt that intimacy which beatifies married people when they suddenly admit that they equally dislike a relative of either of them.

From Main Street by Sinclair Lewis

Vietnam has had 117 people beatified and later canonised as saints, but the Church said this was the first time a beatification ceremony had been held in the country rather than at the Vatican.

From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026

He was previously beatified - attributed his first miracle - in 2020, the healing of a Brazilian child diagnosed with a congenital disease.

From BBC ● Nov. 20, 2024

For them, there is more than just basketball at play and their issue isn’t with Clark, but rather the hype machine that has beatified her.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2024

It is the first time that an entire family has been beatified.

From Washington Times ● Sep. 10, 2023

She had responded to my irrelevant murmur of adoration by just such a solemn and beatified appearance as I had imagined.

From The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West

Benedict XVI cleared the path to Archbishop Romero’s sainthood shortly before resigning in 2013, and Francis fast-tracked his conversion to sainthood, beatifying him in 2015 as a martyr.

From New York Times ● Oct. 14, 2018

In beatifying Pope Paul VI, Francis was honoring the architect of Vatican II, which modernized the church in the 1960s and 1970s.

From US News ● Oct. 20, 2014

Knappenberger approaches his subject as a true believer, beatifying and martyring Swartz instead of sitting with the contradictions of his life.

From The Verge ● Jun. 27, 2014

The EU waived a travel ban on Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe so he could attend Some have questioned the Church's speed in beatifying the late Pope, just six years after his death.

From BBC ● May 1, 2011

The Holy See is really as dilatory in beatifying parties, or making them happy, as the High Court of Chancery.

From Punch - Volume 25 (Jul-Dec 1853) by Various

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