verb
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to tell, study, or explain (myths)
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(intr) to create or make up myths
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(tr) to convert into a myth
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of mythologize
1595–1605; mytholog(y) + -ize; compare French mythologiser
Explanation
To mythologize is to turn an event into a myth, especially by exaggerating it. Some parents mythologize the story of their child's birth, telling it again and again until it becomes a well-known story. When you talk about the past, or some incident or experience from your life, you can mythologize it by making it slightly more exciting and interesting, and by re-telling the tale over and over. An actual myth becomes well-known through repetition by many people over many years (generations, even). To turn an ordinary event into something of a myth is to mythologize it. The word comes from the Greek mythos, "story, speech, or anything delivered by word of mouth."
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.
The preferred ritual is to scream victory, hog the moment, call out the haters and mythologize group success as some kind of personal drama.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 9, 2026
Adriana Romanko, a psychotherapist who leads a volunteer group that supplies the military, UAID, said it was natural for an embattled society to mythologize its defenders in a fight for survival.
From Reuters • Oct. 4, 2023
The Civil War, followed by the country’s centennial in 1876, helped mythologize the flag.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 3, 2023
Rae: I mean, people tend to mythologize my journey, and I think up until recently I was so in it that I didn’t really realize how long it’s been, how far it’s been.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 26, 2021
Perhaps; but, as in the days of Plato, we must needs mythologize when we come to deal with the other life.
From Tragic Sense Of Life by Flitch, J. E. Crawford (John Ernest Crawford)
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.
