dramatize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to put into a form suitable for acting on a stage.
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to express or represent vividly, emotionally, or strikingly.
He dramatizes his woes with sobs and sighs.
verb (used without object)
verb
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(tr) to put into dramatic form
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to express or represent (something) in a dramatic or exaggerated way
he dramatizes his illness
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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dramatizernoun
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overdramatizeverb
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dramatizableadjective
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undramatizableadjective
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undramatizedadjective
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well-dramatizedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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dramatizesimple
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dramatizessimple
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have dramatizedperfect
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has dramatizedperfect
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am dramatizingprogressive
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are dramatizingprogressive
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is dramatizingprogressive
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have been dramatizingperfect progressive
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has been dramatizingperfect progressive
Past
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dramatizedsimple
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had dramatizedperfect
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was dramatizingprogressive
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were dramatizingprogressive
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had been dramatizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dramatize
Explanation
To dramatize something is to put it in dramatic form (like a TV show or movie) or make it seem more dramatic, using exaggeration. Anytime you see a movie or TV show about real events, the actors are dramatizing what really happened. If you slipped on the sidewalk and hurt your knee a little but later made it sound like the most tragic event in the history of humanity, you're guilty of dramatizing what happened. To dramatize in that way is to exaggerate and embellish — it's something that we all do occasionally.
Vocabulary lists containing dramatize
March: Book Two
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -ize
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-ize, List 2
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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.
She bristles when she realizes some dentists are using AI images to upsell patients—deploying color-coded overlays to dramatize borderline findings and justify questionable treatments.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 8, 2026
It is a fine line since law ads can dramatize, but they are not allowed to promise results or payouts.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 8, 2025
“I write about things that have happened, and I, in a way, dramatize them by putting music to it.”
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 23, 2025
Sophocles’ “Antigone” and Euripides’ “Suppliant Women” dramatize tensions between personal morality, state power and democratic rights.
From Salon • Apr. 13, 2025
Now, I doctored this passage to make it bewilderingly incoherent, just to dramatize the topic of this chapter.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
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.
