moralize

American  

[mawr-uh-lahyz, mor-] / ˈmɔr əˌlaɪz, ˈmɒr- /

especially British, moralise

verb (used without object)

• moralizes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• moralized,
  past participle,  past
• moralizing
  present participle

1. to reflect on or express opinions about something in terms of right and wrong, especially in a self-righteous or tiresome way.

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verb (used with object)

• moralizes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• moralized,
  past participle,  past
• moralizing
  present participle

1. to explain in a moral sense, or draw a moral from.

2. to improve the morals of.

moralize British  

/ ˈmɒrəˌlaɪz /

verb

1. (intr) to make moral pronouncements

2. (tr) to interpret or explain in a moral sense

3. (tr) to improve the morals of

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• moralization
  noun
• moralizer
  noun
• overmoralize
  verb
• unmoralizing
  adjective
• moralizingly
  adverb
• overmoralizingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• moralizing
  present
• moralized
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• moralize
  simple
• moralizes
  simple
• have moralized
  perfect
• has moralized
  perfect
• am moralizing
  progressive
• are moralizing
  progressive
• is moralizing
  progressive
• have been moralizing
  perfect progressive
• has been moralizing
  perfect progressive

Past

• moralized
  simple
• had moralized
  perfect
• was moralizing
  progressive
• were moralizing
  progressive
• had been moralizing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will moralize
  simple
• will have moralized
  perfect
• will be moralizing
  progressive
• will have been moralizing
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of moralize

1350–1400; Middle English moralisen < Medieval Latin mōrālizāre. See moral, -ize

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Explanation

When you moralize, you lecture someone about right and wrong, judging their decisions and actions. It’s just plain wrong for people to moralize! Oops. If you know someone who complains about "kids today" and pontificates about how things were in the past, adding an opinion of the proper way to act, you're familiar with the verb moralize. At the heart of moralize is moral, from the Latin root moralis, "proper behavior of a person in society," and someone who moralizes simply wants to share their own idea of what's moral — unfortunately, they tend to do it in an overly superior way.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

moralize moralizes moralized moralizing

I wouldn’t moralize and say that’s bad — I think people create arrangements that work for them.

From The Verge ● May 23, 2022

Right, you try to not moralize, just saying, "Hey, here's what you're dealing with. The choice is up to you."

From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2021

Think carefully about what language you use; for example, “good” and “bad” moralize food.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 30, 2021

Ms. Heller and the screenwriters, Jeff Whitty and the great Nicole Holofcener, resist the impulse to moralize about Lee’s misdeeds or to sand down her rough edges.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2018

I came here to moralize, not to hear things that make me skip to think of.”

From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott

According to him "the language of food is a language that contextualizes, that situates, that moralizes, that challenges the supposedly neutral, non-cultural language of neoliberal economics."

From Salon ● Jan. 23, 2023

In accordance with one of intuitive eating’s 10 principles — “challenge the food police” — neither woman moralizes about the carbs.

From New York Times ● Jan. 18, 2023

“Anything that moralizes weight or food behaviors or body shape or size has a way of causing harm,” Kneeland says.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 8, 2021

Plus, the indie hit never moralizes on same-sex marriage, instead offering a humorous and heartfelt take on two mothers, two teenage kids and a cool biological father.

From Reuters ● Nov. 24, 2010

Accurate perception of the things children play with, and successful manipulation of them to produce effects, would also help them to moral integrity; for order moralizes just in proportion as disorder demoralizes.

From Education in The Home, The Kindergarten, and The Primary School by Elizabeth P. (Palmer) Peabody

In speeches and community meetings, he paints a stark, moralized contrast between the businesses that invest in jobs and the sit-and-wait landowners whose paydays rely on others’ efforts.

From New York Times ● Nov. 12, 2023

When behaviors such as eating meat, cigarette smoking, premarital sex or religious schooling become moralized, they elicit powerful moral emotions, institutional action against the behavior, and even censure or condemnation from others.

From Scientific American ● Mar. 2, 2021

So, when you have that kind of society, what happens is … issues that used to be things you could compromise on become moralized in their form and therefore uncompromisable.

From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2020

I think that it should be a shades-of-gray thing about slower, faster, and not so moralized; granted that there are these difficult decisions around.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 30, 2019

He thinks about Gerhard, the way he locked up the radio for safekeeping, told Helmuth to leave it alone, the way he moralized to Helmuth.

From "The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

The petitioners also took issue with Mr. Barnett’s use of the word “didacticism” to describe the heavy-handed moralizing so common in children’s books.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

Eating the rainbow only becomes moralizing if you treat it like a compliance chart.

From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2026

And then there are “family values,” a whole range of social issues usually related to sexual behavior and typically expressed in censorious, moralizing terms.

From Salon ● Feb. 7, 2026

Settle in for some amusing dissections of popular docuseries like “Making a Murderer” and “The Jinx,” as well as the simultaneously moralizing and exploitative “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2025

There is another possible precedent: moralizing portraits, the descendants of pictures of St. Jerome, that show their subjects holding or pointing to skulls, much as Revere has the teapot in his hand.

From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson

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