glamorize
Americanverb (used with object)
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glamorizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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glamorized,
past participle, past
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glamorizing
present participle
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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
Did I glamorize Los Angeles in a way that she would immediately find annoying?
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2023
“Fourth Avenue Shallower” adds $700 million to past estimates, not counting any lid, nor renovations to glamorize Union Station and South Jackson Street.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 20, 2023
“I suppose I did glamorize it a bit,” he admitted.
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
Yes I know there’s a cult that loves its night tennis, that glamorizes it, that thinks it’s an essential part of the U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
Booth glamorizes the hustle, but Lincoln lived the dangers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 5, 2025
However well researched and respectful Thyberg's film is, the lack of the seedy underbelly inadvertently glamorizes this business.
From Salon ● May 13, 2022
Hollywood’s sins are manifold: It glamorizes violence, fetishizes youth, celebrates materialism and vulgar displays of raw power; it trivializes or ignores complexity, and appropriates cultural narratives shamelessly.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 27, 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
"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
I’ve spent my life training my own organic neural network on glamorized images of beachside bonfires, generic office shenanigans, rise-and-grind sports montages, chemically horned-up retirees, unblemished sneakers on gritty streets.
From New York Times ● Jun. 27, 2023
A toxic commitment to the office, previously glamorized onscreen and standardized across society, is explicitly denounced in its 2022 setting.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2022
Now that he had gone, these things, so long subdued by his presence, were glamorized in his wake.
From "Sula" by Toni Morrison
“She’s glamorizing the lie that women can have it all!”
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026
Though the streamer’s history of glamorizing and heightening heinous acts isn’t necessarily indicative of the quality of “The Perfect Neighbor,” it does cloud the documentary’s release with apprehension.
From Salon ● Oct. 21, 2025
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
Now, I regularly see stories glamorizing Wonder Valley and the eclectic lifestyle offered here.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2022
Perhaps best known for releasing jaw-dropping original films like “Moonlight” and “Midsommar,” the film distributor A24 is also in the business of glamorizing youthful nihilism.
From New York Times ● Aug. 4, 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.
