immortalize
Americanverb (used with object)
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immortalizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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immortalized,
past participle, past
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immortalizing
present participle
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to bestow unending fame upon; perpetuate.
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to make immortal; endow with immortality.
verb
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to give everlasting fame to, as by treating in a literary work
Macbeth was immortalized by Shakespeare
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to give immortality to
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biology to cause (cells) to reproduce indefinitely
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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immortalizesimple
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immortalizessimple
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have immortalizedperfect
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has immortalizedperfect
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am immortalizingprogressive
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are immortalizingprogressive
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is immortalizingprogressive
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have been immortalizingperfect progressive
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has been immortalizingperfect progressive
Past
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immortalizedsimple
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had immortalizedperfect
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was immortalizingprogressive
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were immortalizingprogressive
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had been immortalizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of immortalize
Explanation
When you immortalize something, you praise it in a way that's meant to last forever. You could immortalize your favorite pop star, for example, by carving a huge statue of him out of marble. The existence of Disneyland and Disney World has managed to immortalize the image of Mickey Mouse, especially the silhouette of his ears. Through the years, many artists have chosen to immortalize US presidents through public art like the Lincoln Memorial and Mount Rushmore. The verb immortalize comes from the adjective immortal, or "living forever," with its Latin root, immortalis, "deathless or undying."
Vocabulary lists containing immortalize
The Glass Castle
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"Texas v. Johnson, Majority Opinion" by William J. Brennan
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Whirligig
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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:
A student of both men, Doyle would immortalize detection as a study in “little distinctions”—a callus, a stain, a footprint or the mark of a ligature could become hallmarks of a criminal investigation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026
"For a melanocyte to transform into cancer, one of the biggest hurdles is to immortalize itself. Once it can do that, it's well on its way to cancer."
From Science Daily ● Jul. 1, 2026
The pharaohs of ancient Egypt built pyramids in the Valley of Kings to immortalize themselves.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 5, 2025
Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, Twain grew up in the slaveholding community of Hannibal, Mo., a town he would immortalize in “Huckleberry Finn” and its prequel, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2025
You do not immortalize the lost by writing about them.
From "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green
At Notre Dame: The movie “Rudy” immortalizes a real-life 1975 Notre Dame-Georgia Tech game in which a walk-on football player and a teammate sacked the opposing quarterback, helping the Fighting Irish win 24-3.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026
She also does the character— and Carrie Fisher, who immortalizes Leia as an adult— proud.
From Salon ● Jun. 15, 2022
Such poignant lyricism, however, isn’t only mined from the everyday tragedies and triumphs of the real people she immortalizes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2021
In her memory, her mother and her father’s sister live large; so she immortalizes them in “Two Women,” about what strange bedfellows some in-laws make.
From New York Times ● Oct. 13, 2020
The graffiti on the walls was marked by Deckers and their friends, sometimes the last piece of themselves the Deckers have left behind, something that immortalizes them.
From "They Both Die at the End" by Adam Silvera
Sparks legend Lisa Leslie has officially been immortalized in Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026
It was immortalized by the composer Johann Strauss II as “The Blue Danube,” but the views from today’s cruise-ship windows are heavy on the grey-brown hues of dried-up riverbeds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
The California Department of Motor Vehicles, long synonymous with slow lines and bureaucracy — immortalized by the sloths of the Department of Mammal Vehicles in Disney’s “Zootopia” — is expanding its digital services.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
From there, the movie was immortalized in the meme canon with Andy’s Chanel boots and Miranda’s famous cerulean monologue.
From Salon ● Apr. 20, 2026
“He added an angel, with a sword and a lantern, and Billy knew it was his brother, Marcus, who was now immortalized on the ceiling of the theatre...”
From "The Marvels" by Brian Selznick
Although a passionate reader, he was a terrible speller, immortalizing “tea” as “tae” in a 1961 painting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Movie legend Tom Cruise and the player's pop star-turned-fashion designer wife Victoria Beckham will be at the ceremony on June 12 to unveil the plaque immortalizing the British midfielder on Hollywood's most famous thoroughfare.
From Barron's ● Jun. 2, 2026
The narrative is interspersed with home movies shot on a 8 mm camera, immortalizing candid instances of leisure and love, the ones that truly matter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2025
Here is a fine time to confess that when Cupo slung his arm around my shoulders, jazzed to play his part in immortalizing this moment, I had no idea who he was.
From Salon ● Dec. 23, 2023
Haas, an archaeologist at the Field Museum of Natural History, in Chicago, had plucked the fabric from the earth minutes before, two graduate students immortalizing the operation with digital cameras.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
