memorialize
Americanverb (used with object)
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memorializes,
present (3rd person singular)
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memorialized,
past participle, past
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memorializing
present participle
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to commemorate.
-
to present a memorial to.
verb
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to honour or commemorate
-
to present or address a memorial to
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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memorializesimple
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memorializessimple
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have memorializedperfect
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has memorializedperfect
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am memorializingprogressive
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are memorializingprogressive
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is memorializingprogressive
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have been memorializingperfect progressive
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has been memorializingperfect progressive
Past
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memorializedsimple
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had memorializedperfect
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was memorializingprogressive
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were memorializingprogressive
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had been memorializingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of memorialize
Explanation
When you memorialize something, you honor it or do something so it will be remembered. If you want to remember a summer trip taken with friends, you could make a photo album full of the pictures you took to memorialize it. The word memorialize often is used in relation to someone or something that has passed away or even to a group of connected individuals who have perished. You might see a monument, for example, that memorializes victims of an earthquake, meaning pays tribute to them. You can also memorialize someone in a speech, meaning you tell about the person's life and describe how he or she has affected others.
Vocabulary lists containing memorialize
Total Recall: Mem
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Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 1
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2014 Vocabulary Video Contest (M-Z)
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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:
Prosecutors portrayed Bolton as driven by his eagerness to memorialize his day-to-day life in Trump’s first term.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
In the belly of a whale at a jazz venue in Little Tokyo, early 2014, I gathered with Fred Moten, Kima Jones and others to memorialize Amiri Baraka a week or so after his death.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2026
Every year, Amicus co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern invite listeners to nominate the Supreme Court’s most egregious behavior, then choose their own “worst of the worst” to memorialize the most ignominious moments.
From Slate ● Jan. 3, 2026
The intent is to memorialize it, not to filter it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 2025
Thought they'd be tripping over themselves to memorialize one of their own.
From "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon
An FBI document memorializes a 2006 conversation in which Mr. Trump phoned the Palm Beach, Fla., police chief to say he knew about Epstein’s and Ms. Maxwell’s behavior and thought it vile.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026
But it is her devotion to the craft that the special lovingly memorializes.
From Salon ● May 14, 2025
Inside the creative, caring and controversial website that memorializes the dead.
From Slate ● Oct. 27, 2024
“Vidas” memorializes the people and scenes of artist Erick Medel’s everyday life in Boyle Heights — a block party at the plaza, a mother and child crossing the street, a fruit vendor at Pride.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2024
Barlow, Joel, N. W.'s classmate, 4; a classic author, 48; memorializes Congress on copyright laws, 50; his poetry lightly esteemed by N. W., 281.
From Noah Webster American Men of Letters by Horace E. Scudder
By including himself in such company, he believes he should be memorialized in stone.
From Salon ● May 7, 2026
Their faces are pasted on walls and lampposts across Mexico, and demonstrators regularly hoist banners demanding the return of loved ones whose names are memorialized in chants.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 6, 2026
The most practical solution: Community property with right of survivorship or, as a halfway point, a clearly drafted life-estate agreement, ideally memorialized in a postnuptial agreement to fend off any disgruntled stepchildren.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 12, 2026
Before 2008, he recalls, a clinician’s work was memorialized on paper: scribbled notes, doctor’s orders and thick charts parked at the nursing station.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 8, 2026
Arriving to watch them play, Howard was delighted to see that the jockeys had memorialized his generosity by ordering their uniforms in Howard red and white, with the Howard signature triangle on them.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Throughout his time here, he painted whenever he could, memorializing the lakes, forests and mountains that surrounded him.
From Salon ● May 2, 2026
“Death of the Last Cowhand” here is a touching poem by rancher Linda Hasselstrom memorializing the last days of a nonagenarian cowboy who literally died with his boots on.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 2, 2026
A team from Georgetown University is investigating their deaths at the House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children, a segregated juvenile detention facility in Cheltenham, Maryland, and memorializing them.
From Barron's ● Feb. 27, 2026
Kirk’s death is now a meme, with A.I. parody songs memorializing his legacy and his face plastered onto figures like Shrek.
From Slate ● Dec. 28, 2025
Oppenheimer, writing for the group, dispatched to Washington a dispirited one-page memo on June 16 memorializing their conclusion.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
