glamorize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to make glamorous.
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to glorify or romanticize.
an adventure film that tended to glamorize war.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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glamorizationnoun
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glamorizernoun
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overglamorizeverb (used with object)
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overglamourizeverb (used with object)
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unglamorizedadjective
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unglamourizedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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glamorizesimple
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glamorizessimple
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have glamorizedperfect
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has glamorizedperfect
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am glamorizingprogressive
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are glamorizingprogressive
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is glamorizingprogressive
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have been glamorizingperfect progressive
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has been glamorizingperfect progressive
Past
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glamorizedsimple
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had glamorizedperfect
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was glamorizingprogressive
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were glamorizingprogressive
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had been glamorizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of glamorize
An Americanism dating back to 1935–40; glamor ( def. ) + -ize
Explanation
When you make something seem more attractive or exciting than it really is, you glamorize it. Movies you've seen might glamorize camping, but after three days with no shower, you may find it less enticing. Making anything appear glamorous is to glamorize it. So you can glamorize your dog by dressing him in a fancy velvet collar studded with jewels. It's more common, however, to use this verb for the act of making difficult or dangerous things seem very alluring. A book might glamorize a climb to the top of Mt. Everest (which is actually very dangerous), and an old movie might glamorize the life of a gangster (which was decidedly less luxurious once he was convicted and imprisoned).
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:
It didn’t valorize or glamorize the economic downturn; it just portrayed it in the way that the people who lived there experienced it.
From Salon ● Jan. 27, 2026
Michael Mann’s Ferrari may glamorize speed, but Mann isn’t shy about showing its consequences.
From Slate ● Nov. 27, 2023
We expect that they have neatly stored and codified all of these documents so that we don’t have to; we can simply glamorize that code and conflate it with cinematic gesturing.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 30, 2023
While Mr. Earnest was careful not to glamorize intelligence work, he also seemed to enjoy occasionally pulling back the curtain on the life of the spy.
From New York Times ● Feb. 19, 2022
“I suppose I did glamorize it a bit,” he admitted.
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
The book is also a love letter to activism, which isn’t to say it glamorizes it.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 10, 2022
Ms. McKinney compared its appeal to that of Van Life — a cultural movement that glamorizes living in a small space.
From New York Times ● Dec. 20, 2021
Martin Scorsese has directed a significant part of his energy toward putting organized crime on-screen in a way that effectively if not technically glamorizes it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2019
Jones said she’s aware that some critics of the franchise believe the series glamorizes teen pregnancy to young viewers.
From Fox News ● Oct. 26, 2019
The cinematography in “The Miniaturist” imitates a Vermeer masterpiece's interplay between light and shadow, engulfing the action in mesmerizing glow that both augments and glamorizes the weight of what is essentially Petronella’s imprisonment.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2018
"It's very glamorized, and it feels very professional and fun," said Grace Stark, a world 100m bronze medallist in Tokyo last month.
From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2025
Lestat’s figment doubles as his love’s guilty conscience and a glamorized memory.
From Salon ● May 26, 2024
These women aren’t glamorized by Brathwaite’s lens, and I wish the exhibition had made more explicit their roles as co-developers of the movement.
From New York Times ● Nov. 23, 2022
Beyond that, most people present a glamorized version of their lives online, and instead of listening, empathizing and engaging in conversations, people leap to confrontations, trying to publicly obliterate anyone who disagrees with them.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 9, 2022
Now that he had gone, these things, so long subdued by his presence, were glamorized in his wake.
From "Sula" by Toni Morrison
Bayona’s film seeks to honor the story and strays away from glamorizing or sensationalizing the horrors the passengers and crew members endured.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 2, 2024
Though Van Soest’s film plays into Blanchard’s desire for fame, the director says he worried about glamorizing his subject too much and admits it was a tricky balancing act.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2023
In another, a man rants about tech being “over-glamorized” while acknowledging his own contributions to the glamorizing.
From New York Times ● Mar. 1, 2023
“It wasn’t about glamorizing or promoting anything except telling her story that then could be a vehicle for others to have these very difficult conversations.”
From Washington Times ● Dec. 11, 2022
That show became a hit for what many would consider the wrong reasons, in that it is accused of glamorizing its repugnant main subject.
From Salon ● Oct. 25, 2022
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.
