edify
Americanverb (used with object)
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edifies,
present (3rd person singular)
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edified,
past participle, past
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edifying
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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edifiernoun
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reedifyverb (used with object)
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edifyingadjective
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nonedifiedadjective
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unedifiedadjective
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edifyinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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edifysimple
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edifiessimple
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have edifiedperfect
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has edifiedperfect
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am edifyingprogressive
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are edifyingprogressive
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is edifyingprogressive
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have been edifyingperfect progressive
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has been edifyingperfect progressive
Past
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edifiedsimple
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had edifiedperfect
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was edifyingprogressive
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were edifyingprogressive
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had been edifyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of edify
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English edifien, from Anglo-French, Old French edifier, from Latin aedificāre “to build,” equivalent to aedi- (stem of aedes ) “house, temple” + -ficāre -fy
Explanation
To edify is to help someone understand, whether it is books that edify those who want to learn a new language, or the explanations that hang beside paintings at a museum that edify visitors who aren't familiar with the artist. If you know that the noun edifice is a synonym for building, you may wonder what the related verb edify has to do with understanding. You can think of something that edifies as the building blocks of what might become a lifelong interest, like an elementary school teacher who edifies the student who becomes an Abraham Lincoln scholar, or an activity you eventually master, like the beginners' lessons that edify new ice skaters.
Vocabulary lists containing edify
Othello
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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.
See Examples For:
Finding the least taxing way to activate your inner circle could gratify — and edify — all involved, and restore a sense of control over your own well-being.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 21, 2022
Gonzalez’s main strategies are to allow Olga’s mother to edify the reader along with her children through her letters and to have characters speak to each other in blocks of exposition.
From New York Times ● Jan. 10, 2022
Yet Moreno-Garcia aims not just to edify but to thrill.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2020
One story, The Millionaire, describes a disgraced man who undergoes ritual humiliation to edify people who want to witness “the version of the world you believe in”.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 14, 2020
They read them instead of pronouncing them by Heart, which prevents them from falling into that extravagant Gesticulation, and those mad Rants and Enthusiasm, which commonly irritate more than edify.
Ken Loach's film, written by Rona Munro and based on a true story, horrifies and edifies in equal measure.
From Time Magazine Archive
If art no longer shocks, it seldom edifies.
From Time Magazine Archive
This is an album that edifies even as it enchants.
From Time Magazine Archive
He beats the air with words and edifies only those who are present, but does nothing for the absent and for posterity.
From The Love of Books The Philobiblon of Richard de Bury by Ernest Chester Thomas
Love edifies; that is, it builds up perfectly the whole man, secures an entire and harmonious and proportionate development of his nature.
From The Jericho Road by W. Bion Adkins
While we were edified, amused, enraged and reassured by what we told ourselves was the story of Afghanistan, an entirely different tale was unspooling outside the dominant narrative.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 17, 2021
But what makes the play especially tricky, and possibly infuriating to theatergoers seeking to be efficiently edified, is that Shawn doesn’t neatly sort out the subjective views of his characters.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2017
We’d been there for several hours by then, had consumed our blueberries and granola bars, were edified and overstimulated and thinking about making our way home after a while.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 22, 2017
Listening to Serial, This American Life, Radiolab, WTF with Marc Maron, or 99% Invisible, we expect to come out the other end edified and enriched, in complex ways.
From Slate ● Dec. 14, 2014
Parsons, his attention caught by the trumpet call, sat listening with a sort of gaping solemnity, a sort of edified boredom.
From "1984" by George Orwell
For Jane Fleischer Reid, granddaughter of Betty Boop co-creator Max Fleischer and creator of Fabulous Fleischer Cartoons Restored, working with Buermann on Boop’s birthday party was “delightful” and edifying.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
“Blow Out” tees up an astonishing setup and payoff, yet does so with a graceful simplicity that makes returning to the film edifying no matter how many times you’ve seen it.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026
The machinery was imperfect, the politics were real, and those who lost were not always treated well—the history of what followed Nicaea is not uniformly edifying.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
Nik goes further and says it was "absolutely edifying".
From BBC ● Nov. 29, 2024
They were labeled with edifying placards that said Traditional Kerala Umbrella and Traditional Bridal Dowry-box.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
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.
