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
“They lost so much in the fires yet they’re still doing so much for their community. They really epitomize the spirit that we felt was rising in L.A.,”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 2, 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
But it’s those first five names mentioned in this column that epitomize the distinction between the Mariners and the rest of the league.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 31, 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
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 ship’s journey epitomizes a moment of peak globalization that could be coming to an end.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 28, 2025
“He’s so tough, a couple of times he just drags guys with him ... he epitomizes everything we want to be about ... he’s like Pac-Man, he just eats up yards and catches.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2025
Nestled at the end of a cul-de-sac, this brand-new, modern home epitomizes luxury.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 2025
This little incident, it seemed to me, epitomizes charmingly the attitude of "our nicest people" toward our fundamental institution.
From Why Marry? by Jesse Lynch Williams
Long gone are the days when Michael Douglas’s Gordon Gekko in “Wall Street” epitomized its 1980s swagger with his contrast-collar shirts and silk-printed ties.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 7, 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
He says he was inspired by farmers’ markets in Los Angeles and grab-and-go shops in the Hamptons—places that epitomized the current craze for all things healthy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026
Fairly or unfairly, to her derogators Pittman epitomized all that was reprehensible about Dick Bass’s popularization of the Seven Summits and the ensuing debasement of the world’s highest mountain.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
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
If a ball doesn’t bounce off one Seahawk’s helmet on one play or a Brown’s hands on another, this team is 4-3 and epitomizing average.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 29, 2023
He launched a long-shot bid for a Democratic seat south of Chicago in 2009, epitomizing the “Young Guns” brand that McCarthy honed.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 23, 2022
Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" famously denounced the bulk of humanity as "phonies" — epitomizing the human tendency to valued those who remain genuine and deride fakers.
From Salon ● May 24, 2022
Everything was different, and we saw it through the eyes of youth and romance as epitomizing the storied tropics.
From Gold by Stewart Edward White
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.
