verb
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to print (textual matter) in italic type
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(tr) to underline (letters, words, etc) with a single line to indicate italics
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of italicize
Explanation
When you italicize your writing, you print or type in the slanted letters called "italics." You can italicize a word in a sentence when you want to emphasize it. People italicize for various reasons: they might italicize the title of a book, or a section of dialogue that's yelled by a character in a story. Print that you italicize usually slopes from left to right, and it resembles script or cursive writing. Italicize and italics come from the Latin word for "Italian," italicus. This print style was named in honor of the Italian printer credited as the first to use it.
Vocabulary lists containing italicize
STAAR Grade 5 Reading: Informational Text, List 2
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Week 2 Spelling
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Week 3 Vocabulary
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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.
Jon Balke’s score is a spare accompaniment that knows when to italicize the unease and when to color in the serenity.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 20, 2023
Notes allows you to bold and italicize, too, which I do every once in a while if I’m feeling wild.
From The Verge • Jan. 17, 2022
“They want you to italicize it or even put a glossary. And I think no, no, no, no.”
From New York Times • Oct. 7, 2021
Rayne’s production does not italicize the issue, but the show is not indifferent, either.
From Washington Post • Sep. 28, 2017
Most of the horses we had had along these Normandy high-roads, had answered to names that had helped to italicize the features of the country.
From In and out of Three Normady Inns by Dodd, Anna Bowman
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.
