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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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:
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
Insp Pete Musgrave says he is aware of social media being used to "glorify" thefts and understands the frustration of victims.
From BBC ● May 19, 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
Naturally, such arches tend to glorify the emperor.
From Salon ● Nov. 5, 2025
His attack was on those who wrote history to ratify and glorify the present, particularly present political arrangements.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Klee’s “National Socialist Revolution Drawings”—childlike works merging abstraction and expressionism—also challenged the Führer’s demand for “realism” that glorifies the Nordic‑German ideal of beauty.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
Even remembering how wide a beach used to be, or how the cliffs once withstood the tide, glorifies the notion that resilience is measured by our ability to remain unchanged.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2025
But the organisation says, in reality, it "glorifies thinness and vilifies weight gain" and "promotes disordered eating behaviours."
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2025
“He won’t play in a drama that glamorizes evil or glorifies violence. ‘I’m no nut on that,’ he says, ‘my pictures don’t have to carry a message — but they do have to say something.’
From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2024
But a great poet like Virgil not only expresses an age to itself: he elevates and glorifies what he expresses.
From Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius by Dill, Samuel
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
Tuchel was unhappy with England's lack of intensity in their opening friendly against New Zealand in Tampa, the 1-0 win effectively a glorified training session as he fielded two different teams in each half.
From BBC ● Jun. 11, 2026
A federal court in Texas may not stop a federal court in Rhode Island from adjudicating a case by issuing a glorified restraining order against the parties.
From Slate ● May 19, 2026
Aimed squarely at kids of all sizes, “Star Wars” has become a glorified tour of a billionaire’s expanding playworld and “The Mandalorian and Grogu” wants the track well-oiled, not bumpy.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
I was just another sad, lost, lonely soul, wasting his life on a glorified videogame.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
“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
It’s an idea that has existed in most cultures and religions for millennia — glorifying cleaning as a spiritual act or the precursor to a spiritual act.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2025
The colors deepened, glorifying Ishtar and pushing Nergal into a darkness that verged on consuming existence.
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
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.
