epitomize
Americanverb (used with object)
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epitomizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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epitomized,
past participle, past
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epitomizing
present participle
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to contain or represent in small compass; serve as a typical example of; typify.
This meadow epitomizes the beauty of the whole area.
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to make an epitome of.
to epitomize an argument.
verb
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to be a personification of; typify
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to make an epitome of
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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epitomizesimple
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epitomizessimple
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have epitomizedperfect
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has epitomizedperfect
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am epitomizingprogressive
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are epitomizingprogressive
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is epitomizingprogressive
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have been epitomizingperfect progressive
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has been epitomizingperfect progressive
Past
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epitomizedsimple
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had epitomizedperfect
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was epitomizingprogressive
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were epitomizingprogressive
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had been epitomizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of epitomize
Explanation
If you epitomize something, you’re a perfect example of that thing. If you never get nervous when playing basketball and can always make that last-second shot, your teammates might say you epitomize mental toughness. A person can epitomize something — usually an abstract quality, like grace or greed — but epitomize can apply to other things as well. A popular band might epitomize the spirit of the new decade, which means it has all the main characteristics associated with the era's music, like long folksy beards, pretty harmonies, and earnest lyrics. A frustrating situation at work involving careless coworkers might make you say that they epitomize everything that’s wrong with your job.
Vocabulary lists containing epitomize
The Color of Water
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Into Thin Air
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Harriet Tubman
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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:
The two entrepreneurs came to epitomize a certain swagger of the first hype cycle roughly a decade ago when Silicon Valley was betting it could replace a world of human-driven cars with robots.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 22, 2026
“Their play style is relentless. I think of so many plays in games where guys are fighting that extra inch and those guys epitomize that.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2025
“Water projects came to epitomize the pork barrel; they were the oil can that lubricated the nation’s legislative machinery.”
From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2024
In browsing print shops and bookstores, I found and bought illustrated books by designers whose styles epitomize art nouveau, Art Deco, and the arts and crafts aesthetic.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 8, 2023
The time-tested strategy of using those who epitomize moral virtue as symbols in racial justice campaigns is far more difficult to employ in efforts to reform the criminal justice system.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
Since its excellence needs no explaining, here are a few others that are as worthy of our appreciation, including a heartwarming duet that epitomizes Parton’s universal appeal.
From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2026
With Craftsman bungalows and tree-lined streets, the city still epitomizes suburban U.S.A. — but now has a hip new twist.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026
The fund, founded in 1929, epitomizes Vanguard Group founder Jack Bogle’s values —own a balanced mix of stocks and bonds, and keep your costs down.
From Barron's ● Apr. 3, 2026
The reliance on NAVs reported by other managers epitomizes black-box financial reporting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 16, 2026
In analogy with this, is it not true that every thinking man and woman in the course of his or her development, epitomizes the history of human thought?
From Socialism: Positive and Negative by Robert Rives La Monte
Kalanick succeeded with Uber with what many saw as a win-at-all-costs strategy epitomized in his staff instructions: “Cheat codes. Find them. Use them.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026
In their own madcap way, Dino and Jer epitomized Cicero’s notion that comedy is the imitation of life, the mirror of custom and the image of truth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
Chinese immigrant Polly Bemis epitomized the pioneer-woman ideal.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 3, 2026
Some longevity influencers attract rubbernecking for their quixotic quests to live forever, epitomized by venture capitalist Bryan Johnson’s vampiric infusions of his teenage son’s blood plasma.
From Slate ● Feb. 26, 2026
Both laws epitomized the ethos of the Nationalist government, which pretended to preserve what they were attempting to destroy.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
Burrows modeled the notion of directing as a duty to truly bring a show’s cast and writing into people’s living rooms and lives, epitomizing the idea that laughter narrows the distance between strangers.
From Salon ● Jun. 20, 2026
A deal epitomizing the new era of resource nationalism was unveiled Wednesday when Glencore agreed to sell a stake in two African copper mines to a consortium backed by the U.S. government.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 4, 2026
They were epitomizing the control-the-strike-zone brand of baseball Servais and president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto have harped on.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 13, 2022
Open and stood at a sink in front of a mirror at 0 for 33 as a pro in major tournaments, his face epitomizing that athletic combination of spent and bummed.
From Washington Post ● May 18, 2022
In briefly epitomizing this page of history, the plan here pursued is to adhere as far as possible to Japanese interpretations, since these must of necessity be most intelligent.
From A History of the Japanese People From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era by F. (Frank) Brinkley
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
