glorify
Americanverb (used with object)
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glorifies,
present (3rd person singular)
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glorified,
past participle, past
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glorifying
present participle
verb
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to make glorious
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to make more splendid; adorn
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to worship, exalt, or adore
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to extol
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to cause to seem more splendid or imposing than reality
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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glorifiernoun
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deglorifyverb (used with object)
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reglorifyverb (used with object)
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glorifiableadjective
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self-glorifiedadjective
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self-glorifyingadjective
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unglorifiedadjective
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unglorifyingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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glorifysimple
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glorifiessimple
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have glorifiedperfect
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has glorifiedperfect
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am glorifyingprogressive
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are glorifyingprogressive
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is glorifyingprogressive
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have been glorifyingperfect progressive
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has been glorifyingperfect progressive
Past
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glorifiedsimple
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had glorifiedperfect
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was glorifyingprogressive
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were glorifyingprogressive
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had been glorifyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of glorify
1300–50; Middle English < Old French glorifier < Late Latin glōrificāre. See glory, -fy
Explanation
To glorify is to praise or honor something or someone to an extreme degree. If you like someone, you might compliment or praise them, but glorifying takes that a step further. When something is glorified, it is praised to the highest degree possible. It seems right that great people like Martin Luther King and Gandhi are glorified. It can seem odd when athletes are glorified just for playing a game. Often this word is used in a negative sense. For example, a movie with lots of explosions could be said "to glorify violence."
Vocabulary lists containing glorify
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Shiloh
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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:
Even so, “Princess Mononoke” doesn’t glorify violence or tilt the audience against people like Lady Eboshi, who is more like us than we’d probably admit.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
Nawrocki said Kyiv's "decision to glorify the UPA is not only outrageous" but also "deeply disappointing", undermining "reconciliation" between the two nations.
From Barron's ● Jun. 20, 2026
The goal is to get people to think, not to mock or glorify violence in any way, the Secret Handshake rep said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026
“The campaign to glorify him,” wrote one biographer in 1988, “has surpassed fanatic religious fervor. The North Korean ‘sun of the nation’ shines both day and night, and it is hard to escape his ubiquity.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 11, 2026
For there were twenty-four of them, each one given his night to preach—to shine, as it were, before men, and to glorify his Heavenly Father.
From "Go Tell It on the Mountain" by James Baldwin
“We have a culture that glorifies work,” says Tosti-Kharas, pointing to the ethos of hard work at the core of the American dream.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 2025
Even someone as fortunate as Ramsey, who gets to do what she loves for a living, isn’t immune to losing her humility to a world that glorifies constant labor.
From Salon ● Jul. 2, 2025
But the organisation says, in reality, it "glorifies thinness and vilifies weight gain" and "promotes disordered eating behaviours."
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2025
The press glorifies Dudamel as the next Leonard Bernstein one minute and looks for flaws anywhere it can find them the next.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2025
To this he added the usual prejudices of the Greek for his native city, Kyme, which he glorifies upon every occasion.
From Problems in Greek history by John Pentland Mahaffy
Hiding away in a glorified ice chest would also have been a blow to the 80-year-old’s dignity.
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026
The former hospital is a heap of rubble and the uranium miner glorified on a huge Soviet mosaic has lost half his face.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
Would the group stage not simply become a glorified pan-confederation qualifying competition for what is, essentially, a knockout tournament?
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
But you could stunt your career growth by being a glorified coffee fetcher at a well-known company.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
I spent a total of eight days in that glorified hut, but I mostly just slept the first few away.The last five were the problem.
From "Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie" by Jordan Sonnenblick
“Duchamp Takes New York” readily conforms to the predictable narrative about the artist, glorifying his influence and spirit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Sansal may be free, but prominent French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes remains in an Algerian prison, sentenced to seven years for "glorifying terrorism" for having sought to interview an outlawed group.
From Barron's ● Nov. 13, 2025
It’s not surprising that a movie glorifying Formula One wouldn’t get into the well-documented controversies that have plagued the sport.
From Salon ● Jul. 7, 2025
American rapper Kanye West has been blocked from entering Australia over a song glorifying Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2025
But his battle with Riefenstahl—ultimately and ironically a battle over a shared goal, glorifying the ideals of the Nazis—raged on throughout the remainder of the games and beyond.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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.
