demythologize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to divest of mythological or legendary attributes or forms, as in order to permit clearer appraisal and understanding.
to demythologize the music dramas of Richard Wagner for modern listeners.
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to make less mysterious or mythical so as to give a more human character to.
to demythologize the presidency.
verb (used without object)
verb
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to eliminate all mythical elements from (a piece of writing, esp the Bible) so as to arrive at an essential meaning
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to restate (a message, esp a religious one) in rational terms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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demythologizesimple
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demythologizessimple
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have demythologizedperfect
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has demythologizedperfect
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am demythologizingprogressive
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are demythologizingprogressive
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is demythologizingprogressive
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have been demythologizingperfect progressive
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has been demythologizingperfect progressive
Past
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demythologizedsimple
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had demythologizedperfect
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was demythologizingprogressive
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were demythologizingprogressive
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had been demythologizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of demythologize
First recorded in 1945–50; de- + mythologize
Vocabulary lists containing demythologize
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:
At a time of grandiose mythologizing, he marshals his considerable storytelling skills to demythologize himself.
From New York Times ● Nov. 15, 2020
She wants to demythologize PMDD’s sources to figure out whether these spurts of female rage are really based in human biology.
From Slate ● Jul. 25, 2018
Regrettably, this does not lead to keener insights into his plays, and sometimes Winters’s efforts to demythologize Shepard come across as the desire to take him down a peg or two.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 27, 2017
While repeating a vow to cooperate with lawmakers, he added: "We have to demythologize this issue, and certainly depoliticize it."
From Reuters ● Apr. 30, 2013
His archives also contain a later attempt at a sequel that deals with his years as president and was intended to demythologize him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 8, 2011
This show demythologizes the press, and I think people like that.”
From New York Times ● Aug. 16, 2016
“The Look of Love” demythologizes its subject to the extent that any envy you might initially feel quickly drains away.
From New York Times ● Jul. 4, 2013
I haven't made the references to Los Angeles too explicit, because that demythologizes it.
From Time Magazine Archive
Maimonides presents a demythologized conception of the divine that influences later thinkers, Spinoza among them.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 15, 2022
“All I had wanted to do was write a novel that demythologized the West. Instead, it became the chief source of Western mythology. Some things you cannot explain.”
From Washington Post ● Mar. 26, 2021
In the larger journalistic sense, they were part of a ground-shifting movement that demythologized and humanized athletes, for better or worse.
From New York Times ● Dec. 11, 2010
Still another reason, suggests Philosopher Michael Novak of Stanford, is that the council "demythologized" the church.
From Time Magazine Archive
The mass is less ornamental; it has been ‘modernized,’ tampered with, demythologized, deflated.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
It goes a long way toward demythologizing the Seattle-born, L.A.-based artist, who was heartbreakingly struck down by a rare liposarcoma cancer in 2015, when he was barely 32.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2025
This is all of a piece with the demythologizing trend in Wagner stagings over the past 50 years, especially in Europe.
From New York Times ● Aug. 7, 2022
The school’s announcement in December “is really aimed at demythologizing its history, and this is healthy and much needed,” he wrote in an email.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 5, 2021
Fisher’s openness is one step toward demythologizing ECT and, as such, it was a major contribution to public awareness.
From Slate ● Dec. 27, 2016
And that more subtle explanation could go a long way towards demythologizing fingerprint evidence for jurors.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2012
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.
