solemnize
Americanverb (used with object)
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solemnizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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solemnized,
past participle, past
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solemnizing
present participle
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to perform the ceremony of (marriage).
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to hold or perform (ceremonies, rites, etc.) in due manner.
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to observe or commemorate with rites or ceremonies.
to solemnize an occasion with prayer.
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to go through with ceremony or formality.
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to render solemn, serious, or grave; dignify.
verb (used without object)
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solemnizes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
solemnized,
past participle, past
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solemnizing
present participle
verb
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to celebrate or observe with rites or formal ceremonies, as a religious occasion
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to celebrate or perform the ceremony of (marriage)
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to make solemn or serious
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to perform or hold (ceremonies, etc) in due manner
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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solemnizesimple
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solemnizessimple
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have solemnizedperfect
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has solemnizedperfect
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am solemnizingprogressive
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are solemnizingprogressive
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is solemnizingprogressive
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have been solemnizingperfect progressive
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has been solemnizingperfect progressive
Past
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solemnizedsimple
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had solemnizedperfect
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was solemnizingprogressive
-
were solemnizingprogressive
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had been solemnizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of solemnize
1350–1400; Middle English solempnise < Medieval Latin sōlemnizāre, equivalent to Latin sōlemnis solemn + -izāre -ize
Explanation
When you solemnize something, you make it serious or dignified. You might solemnize a meal by lighting candles and saying grace before you eat. How much fun is it to get to pronounce a letter that is normally silent? You'll know when you wrap your tongue around this one, in which the n, normally silent in solemn, gets to introduce the suffix -ize. Even more fun is the fact that solemnize has a Greek suffix tacked onto a Latin root, sollemnis, or "formal, ceremonial, traditional." But we shouldn't be having so much fun with a verb whose meaning is "perform with dignity or gravity."
Vocabulary lists containing solemnize
"The Lady, or the Tiger?" by Frank R. Stockton
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Hard Times
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As You Like It
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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:
There’s the subgenre focusing on Electoral College math and the architecture of the rites that solemnize the delivery of results.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2024
Nine years later, when the United Kingdom allowed same-sex couples to solemnize their marriages in religious ceremonies, Ortega-Medina and his husband married in a Jewish ceremony at West London Synagogue.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 18, 2023
It’s a practice that in America has dated back to Colonial times when it was sometimes difficult to find a preacher to solemnize a marriage.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 10, 2022
Leon P. Hammond, who was designated by the Salt Lake County clerk to solemnize the marriage, led the ceremony, which the couple had postponed in 2020 because of the coronavirus.
From New York Times ● Aug. 6, 2021
It may have been an informal wedlock; as perhaps no one could be found in the colony who would have dared solemnize or record such a marriage.
From Memoirs of Mrs. Rebecca Steward by T. G. (Theophilus Gould) Steward
This is followed by an audience participation segment, in which Edna solemnizes the marriage between two perfect strangers, one of whom happened to be already married.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2015
It solemnizes and legitimizes and dignifies those who have departed into the squalid indignity of death, departed in a way so inhuman that humanity wants to pile on posthumous kindnesses, posthumous significances.
From Time Magazine Archive
I came here humble, poor, and empty-handed, and he solemnizes my return by offering presents to my mother and my sisters!
From The Youth of the Great Elector by L. (Luise) Mühlbach
A something in a summer's day, As slow her flambeaux burn away, Which solemnizes me.
From Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete by Emily Dickinson
A something in a summer's day, As sIow her flambeaux burn away, Which solemnizes me.
From Poems by Emily Dickinson, Series One by Thomas Wentworth Higginson
They lured religious leaders out of their homes by pretending to need a marriage solemnized.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 10, 2023
Their union and all others that took place at Honeymoon Rock Fest were solemnized by Jeff Yenzer, a Universal Life minister who watched from offstage.
From New York Times ● Apr. 8, 2022
A grand boldness solemnized Mälkki’s performances of Russian scores by Tchaikovsky and Scriabin with the L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2021
“It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
From Fox News ● Jul. 4, 2020
The law, more particular then than it is now, required a residence of three weeks in a place, before a marriage could be solemnized, and they left for Holland ere the expiration of a fortnight.
From Mildred Arkell, Volume II (of 3) A Novel by Mrs. Henry Wood
The Scottish Episcopal Church opened the door to solemnizing same-sex marriages in 2017, the Church of Scotland last May.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 20, 2023
Despite facing an outstanding arrest warrant for solemnizing Arzoo’s marriage, he continued his practice in his ramshackle office above a wholesale rice market in downtown Karachi.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 28, 2020
“I would really love the opportunity to participate in solemnizing Congress,” Barker said in an interview.
From Washington Post ● May 5, 2016
"What are you solemnizing here for, this bright day, brother George?" said she, as she bounded down the alley.
From The May Flower, and Miscellaneous Writings by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Directory for solemnizing marriage, as well as the following Directory for Baptism, are found in the oldest Corp.
From American Lutheranism Vindicated; or, Examination of the Lutheran Symbols, on Certain Disputed Topics Including a Reply to the Plea of Rev. W. J. Mann by S. S. (Samuel Simon) Schmucker
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.
