editorialize
Americanverb (used without object)
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to set forth one's position or opinion on some subject in, or as if in, an editorial.
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to inject personal interpretations or opinions into an otherwise factual account.
verb
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to express an opinion in or as in an editorial
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to insert one's personal opinions into an otherwise objective account
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of editorialize
Explanation
When you editorialize, you offer your opinion when it's not appropriate. A newspaper reporter might editorialize by describing a state's Governor as "a loud mouth." There are many times when it's perfectly acceptable to express your personal opinion, but whenever it's not okay — especially in journalism — you editorialize. In a news article about farming, a writer might editorialize by stating her personal preference for locally grown food, for example. The word editorialize was coined in 1856, meaning "introduce opinions into factual accounts," from editorial, "written by an editor," and the Latin root editor, "one who puts forth."
Vocabulary lists containing editorialize
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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:
We don't need him to editorialize about the mind of a hypothetical juror in a hypothetical case.”
From Salon ● Feb. 15, 2024
“We’re not trying to editorialize on any of this.”
From Washington Times ● Jun. 26, 2023
Memmel tended not to editorialize much while I was watching her in the gym, but now she came over to the monitor, where I was observing over Zoom, and grinned.
From New York Times ● May 4, 2021
When I made comparisons with President Trump’s border wall, she politely resisted the impulse to editorialize: “Well, yes, but I’m a guest in this country, so I’ll forgo that.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2019
They lean with the prevailing winds and employ every fallacy of logic in order to editorialize harmoniously with popular prejudices.
From "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin
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In a dozen stories about adopted, surrogate, or same-sex moms using hormone therapy—articles that ran as early as 2011 and as recently as this past April—not a single one I read editorialized against the practice.
From Slate ● Jul. 17, 2023
“The teenager has a clear conscience, and the Stones have all their noise makers in tow,” the Star editorialized.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 10, 2023
The Orange County Register, which had editorialized against him after years of quoting him as a trusted source.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2022
And as The Seattle Times editorial board recently editorialized, “with the world running out of time, there is no room for half measures.”
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 8, 2021
The Morning Herald, sanctimonious as ever, editorialized: There is a proper course in protesting substandard housing, and Operation Breakthrough would have been well advised to have counseled the Edgemont Community Council to follow it.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
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No sooner are we confronted with life’s most painful mysteries—the inevitability of death; the inevitability, too, of the failure of love—than she interrupts her own narrative with editorializing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 6, 2026
And some have done just that in their headlines editorializing about the court’s holding.
From Slate ● Jun. 5, 2025
There's a lot of editorializing these days on the front pages of newspapers which I don't really approve of.
From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2024
Some taggers thought “cozy” was too subjective, and worried that describing a villain as crush-worthy was editorializing a bit much.
From New York Times ● Jan. 14, 2024
That is the worst of daily editorializing; having come safely and inoffensively through with one editorial, the matter is at an end as far as that particular writer is concerned—that is, as a usual thing.
From The International Jew The World's Foremost Problem by Ford, Henry
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.