immortalize
Americanverb (used with object)
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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:
"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
The new effort in Seattle emerges as a nationwide push to grapple with and immortalize the legacy and work of the Black Panther Party takes hold.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 14, 2024
But the world in general, and the art world in particular, has remained largely conservative about what kinds of bodies it chooses to depict, celebrate and immortalize.
From New York Times ● Apr. 3, 2024
Today it’s possible for scientists to immortalize cells by exposing them to certain viruses or chemicals, but very few cells have become immortal on their own as Henrietta’s did.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
The picture immortalizes seasonality, a two-dimensional vision of eternal harmony.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
The statue outside Crypto.com Arena that immortalizes Lakers legend Kobe Bryant after his 81-point game in 2006 misspelled the names of two players and one word.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2024
The main character in “Peking Duck” is a writer who immortalizes some memories of her immigrant mother’s lived experiences in her fiction but assures her mom that the characters aren’t her.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 14, 2022
She also does the character— and Carrie Fisher, who immortalizes Leia as an adult— proud.
From Salon ● Jun. 15, 2022
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
Charles and Caroline are a handsome couple, with Pa hewn in the rugged spirit immortalized by Michael Landon in the 1970s TV classic.
From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2026
The man who immortalized the man who made a midnight ride to Lexington left the Colonies in 1774, moved to London, and never returned.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
The Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini saga has been forever subtly immortalized in a Chargers schedule release video.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2026
The astronauts -- who immortalized the famous "Earthrise" photograph taken from lunar orbit -- were credited with having "saved 1968."
From Barron's ● Mar. 25, 2026
Seeing their cranky old camp director immortalized in stone, wearing a diaper and spewing water from his mouth, made her feel a little better.
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
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
To cherish O’Hara for these immortalizing parts is to acknowledge her awareness that a parent’s relationship with each of their children is a two-hander.
From Salon ● Feb. 4, 2026
The first one immortalizing the Lakers legend was unveiled last month outside Crypto.com Arena and it has three glaring typos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2024
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
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.
