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

Example Sentences

After all, what could enrage reactionaries more than a confident, gender-bending, anti-colonial Puerto Rican performing in Spanish on the country’s most mythologized stage?

From Salon

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

Disneyland’s struggles on opening day have long been mythologized, be it stories of weak asphalt or plumbing disasters.

From Los Angeles Times

Canada provides an instructional model for democratic multiculturalism beyond mythologized heritage.

From Salon

Nabokov set an impossible mark for himself and hit it, the literary equivalent of Babe Ruth’s called shot, and his book deserves to be mythologized in similar fashion.

From Salon