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
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.
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
But unlike DIS — who do so without discernible politics and tend to glamorize a sense of existential resignation — Kline is stridently and sincerely polemical.
From New York Times • Mar. 17, 2023
Did I glamorize Los Angeles in a way that she would immediately find annoying?
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 24, 2023
“I suppose I did glamorize it a bit,” he admitted.
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
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.
