Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

novelize

American  
[nov-uh-lahyz] / ˈnɒv əˌlaɪz /
especially British, novelise

verb (used with object)

novelized, novelizing
  1. to put into the form of a novel.

    He tried to novelize one of Shakespeare's plays.

  2. to make fictional; fictionalize.


novelize British  
/ ˈnɒvəˌlaɪz /

verb

  1. to convert (a true story, film, etc) into a novel

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of novelize

First recorded in 1625–35; novel 1 + -ize

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:

“And we’re in this beautiful golden age of television where we can novelize a TV show.”

From Los Angeles Times May 17, 2020

Lynn Potter knew she had enough for a gripping read and had long planned to novelize the results by working off the letters.

From Washington Times Oct. 23, 2016

Wallace doesn’t simply set a scene and novelize his characters into facile life; rather, he makes an almost metaphysical commitment to see reality through their eyes.

From New York Times Feb. 1, 2016

Reporter Miller had aimed to novelize the waterfront characters.

From Time Magazine Archive

When I started to look into that, I uncovered another amazing story, and I novelized her journey from obscurity in Baltimore to the British throne, almost.

From Salon Sep. 6, 2023

Two years after “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” hit theaters, Quentin Tarantino has novelized his Oscar-winning movie, calling the result a “complete rethinking” of the story.

From Washington Post Jun. 28, 2021

She novelized the story of an idealistic move to Nebraska in “The Quality of Life Report.”

From The New Yorker Nov. 1, 2019

Keneally’s book is a novelized version of a true story: how German industrialist and Nazi named Oskar Schindler managed to save 1,200 Jews from transportation to concentration camps.

From The Guardian Dec. 6, 2018

"Mr. Hornblow has novelized the brain-stormy Pittsburg millionaire and a few other matters that make racy reading."

From By Right of Conquest A Novel by Arthur Hornblow

“That was what my mother did,” she said, referring to the act of novelizing one’s life.

From New York Times Nov. 6, 2022

Obliquity has led to greater success in novelizing the sixteenth President than have attempts to see him from the inside out and through his own point of view.

From The New Yorker Feb. 5, 2017

On the same day, she is seen writing a review of Tolstoy's letters for a little magazine and indulging in that most superfluous of literary activities, novelizing a screenplay.

From Time Magazine Archive

That said, however, an admirer must admit that Vonnegut's novelizing occasionally ticks on reflexively when there seems to be nothing in particular on his mind.

From Time Magazine Archive

IV The novelizing of plays is frequent and profitable in America in these early years of the twentieth century; and it had been attempted infrequently even in the seventeenth century.

From A Book About the Theater by Brander Matthews

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 12,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training