Synonyms

hypostatize

American

[hahy-pos-tuh-tahyz, hi-] / haɪˈpɒs təˌtaɪz, hɪ- /

especially British, hypostatise

verb (used with object)

hypostatized, hypostatizing

to treat or regard (a concept, idea, etc.) as a distinct substance or reality.

hypostatize British

/ haɪˈpɒstəˌtaɪz /

verb

to regard or treat as real
to embody or personify

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

hypostatization noun

Etymology

Origin of hypostatize

First recorded in 1820–30; from Greek hypostatós, hypóstatos “set under, (in Stoic philosophy) substantially existing” ( hypostatic ) + -ize

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.

This conception of wisdom became still further hypostatized.

From Project Gutenberg

The Chinese could not hypostatize in the manner of the West.

From Project Gutenberg

As Green tended to hypostatize the organic conception, so Dewey would make it a concrete reality, with the further specification that it must be something given to psychological observation.

From Project Gutenberg

This he accounts for by by hypostatizing a "raw material" in consciousness which is, must be, present.

From Project Gutenberg

What it demands of the ghost, and of all hypostatized or anthropomorphized ultimate value-forms, is that they shall work, and its life as an institution depends upon making them work.

From Project Gutenberg

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023