euphemize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of euphemize
First recorded in 1855–60, euphemize is from the Greek word euphēmízein to use words of good omen. See euphemism, -ize
Explanation
To euphemize is to refer to something bad or offensive in softer, vaguer terms: in other words, with a euphemism. Euphemisms are words that cushion the blow of reality, allowing us to avoid an unpleasant word or topic. Saying passed away instead of died is using a euphemism, which can also be called euphemizing. People euphemize about topics that are difficult to talk about, such as sex and death. When politicians started calling civilian deaths collateral damage, that was a classic case of euphemizing. When we euphemize, we avoid harsh words with softer — and often deceptive — terms.
Vocabulary lists containing euphemize
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:
Remembering is dangerous when attachments are so tenuous; better to isolate, to distance or to euphemize.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2021
Regardless, the size of your partner’s body does not need to be an embarrassing secret that you tiptoe around or euphemize.
From Slate ● Nov. 14, 2020
She would never euphemize cause of death, believing that wider social truths about disease, mental health, addiction could be communicated more effectively through the experience of an individual.
From The Guardian ● May 2, 2020
Jargon acts not only to euphemize but to license, setting insiders against outsiders and giving the flimsiest notions a scientific aura.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 7, 2016
Nobody's saying that cute slang terms have to go, just that we might want to think about why we euphemize, and consider teaching both pet and dictionary terms.
From New York Times ● Nov. 6, 2012
That changing landscape and the dwindling opportunities therein, whether euphemized as “luxury development,” “slum clearance” or “vintage micro-units,” served as a catalyst for filmmaker A.V.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 30, 2023
Even the most horrific stories of “vis” have been euphemized in translation.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 8, 2022
The result is his effort to bring forgotten gay artists, and the truth of well-known artists whose sexuality has been euphemized by larger museums, into the open.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 29, 2019
However, the controversy around pork, once euphemized as “white steak,” has, to a greater extent, been linked to Israel’s painful and complex process of identity building.
From Slate ● Jun. 19, 2015
Ingrow euphemized, “I shall be well content with bread and cheese and dreams,” as he glanced admiration at Brilliana.
From The Lady of Loyalty House A Novel by McCarthy, Justin H. (Justin Huntly)
There’s a vested interest in euphemizing and dismissing kindness itself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2025
News outlets earn their credibility not by euphemizing the truth in order to appeal to more people, but by telling the truth even when it’s difficult.
From Slate ● Sep. 10, 2022
Do you think people are becoming more frank or are we still euphemizing too much?
From The Verge ● Mar. 13, 2020
As in other El Guindi plays, the characters in “People of the Book” start with smiling politeness until someone can’t stand the euphemizing and says something unguarded.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 18, 2019
And you see this as one danger of euphemizing.
From Time ● Jan. 10, 2011
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.
