conventionalize
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to make conventional.
-
Art. to represent in a conventional manner.
verb
-
to make conventional
-
to simplify or stylize (a design, decorative device, etc)
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of conventionalize
First recorded in 1850–55; conventional + -ize
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:
I'll just make studies now, and this winter I'll conventionalize them and work them into patterns.
From The Harvester by Gene Stratton-Porter
We do not separate the features as frequently as did that ancient people, but we conventionalize them as often.
From The Art of the Moving Picture by Vachel Lindsay
Yet she did not know; she did not want to conventionalize him; there was something rather fine about his ruggedness.
From Partners of the Out-Trail by Harold Bindloss
Whichever group may be the oldest the art is there already advanced and the decoration has taken forms which must have occupied many kinds of workers to conventionalize from natural objects.”
From The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations by Zelia Nuttall
"I thought it was only women who were privileged to change their mind," she began brightly; but Arkwright ignored her attempt to conventionalize the situation.
From Miss Billy — Married by Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman) Porter
They're perfectly legitimate to study and they're interesting, but the reason I'm less interested in them is because they're conventionalized.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2023
There are displays, often conventionalized within the norms of a culture: displays of power, strength, wealth, beauty, generosity, cleverness, and social status.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 26, 2013
He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib.”
From Slate ● May 18, 2013
Signs of the anciently known planets are conventionalized pictures.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
A collection of these villains' speeches would illustrate the conventionalized character of eighteenth century tragedy and the tendency of stage types to perpetuate themselves in theatrical tradition.
From Tragedy by Ashley H. Thorndike
Decadence is more manifest in the restriction and conventionalizing of the material of tragedy.
From Tragedy by Ashley H. Thorndike
The Arundel Society have published some meritorious plates of this kind from Angelico,—not, however, paying respect enough to the local colors, but conventionalizing the whole too much into outline.
From Ariadne Florentina Six Lectures on Wood and Metal Engraving by John Ruskin
Art for art, insisted upon in this way, could only end in conventionalizing the very thing it was meant to assist.
From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. VIII by Various
The modifying or conventionalizing forces are, therefore, quite vague.
From Ancient art of the province of Chiriqui, Colombia Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1884-1885, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1888, pages 3-188 by William Henry Holmes
Further, the restricted action of Rowe's play causes a conventionalizing of the characters.
From Tragedy by Ashley H. Thorndike
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.