mythologize

American  

[mi-thol-uh-jahyz] / mɪˈθɒl əˌdʒaɪz /

especially British, mythologise

verb (used without object)

mythologized, mythologizing

1. to classify, explain, or write about myths.

2. to construct or narrate myths.

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verb (used with object)

mythologized, mythologizing

1. to make into or explain as a myth; make mythical.

mythologize British  

/ mɪˈθɒləˌdʒaɪz /

verb

1. to tell, study, or explain (myths)

2. (intr) to create or make up myths

3. (tr) to convert into a myth

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Other Word Forms

• mythologer noun
• mythologization noun
• mythologizer noun

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

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

And, like the house it hopes to capture and mythologize in equal measure, the pop-up book is a celebration of Willis’ own “more is more” sensibility.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 9, 2025

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

His new record continues to mythologize the macho boogie-woogie man, even as he has reached his 70s.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 17, 2022

But I think that any further attempt to proceed, from this, to mythologize the deeds of Beowulf the Great, is pure conjecture, and probably quite fruitless conjecture.

From Beowulf An Introduction to the Study of the Poem with a Discussion of the Stories of Offa and Finn by Chambers, R. W.