dramatize
Americanverb (used with object)
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dramatizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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dramatized,
past participle, past
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dramatizing
present participle
-
to put into a form suitable for acting on a stage.
-
to express or represent vividly, emotionally, or strikingly.
He dramatizes his woes with sobs and sighs.
verb (used without object)
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dramatizes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dramatized,
past participle, past
-
dramatizing
present participle
verb
-
(tr) to put into dramatic form
-
to express or represent (something) in a dramatic or exaggerated way
he dramatizes his illness
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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dramatizernoun
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overdramatizeverb
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dramatizableadjective
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undramatizableadjective
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undramatizedadjective
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well-dramatizedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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dramatizesimple
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dramatizessimple
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have dramatizedperfect
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has dramatizedperfect
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am dramatizingprogressive
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are dramatizingprogressive
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is dramatizingprogressive
-
have been dramatizingperfect progressive
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has been dramatizingperfect progressive
Past
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dramatizedsimple
-
had dramatizedperfect
-
was dramatizingprogressive
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were dramatizingprogressive
-
had been dramatizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dramatize
Explanation
To dramatize something is to put it in dramatic form (like a TV show or movie) or make it seem more dramatic, using exaggeration. Anytime you see a movie or TV show about real events, the actors are dramatizing what really happened. If you slipped on the sidewalk and hurt your knee a little but later made it sound like the most tragic event in the history of humanity, you're guilty of dramatizing what happened. To dramatize in that way is to exaggerate and embellish — it's something that we all do occasionally.
Vocabulary lists containing dramatize
March: Book Two
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -ize
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-ize, List 2
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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:
Mr. Sorkin attempts to dramatize this discussion via heavy use of charts and repeated invocations of a figure: 64% of those who joined extremist groups on Facebook were directed there by the platform’s own algorithm.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
These dramatize Günter’s contentious but rewarding tutelage under Freud and his erratic marriage to one of Freud’s patients, a Jewish woman named Josine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
The answer to that question is what “The Pitt” attempts to dramatize in “5:00 p.m.,”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2026
The Progress Action Fund video doesn’t just dramatize fear.
From Salon ● Jun. 19, 2025
Now, I doctored this passage to make it bewilderingly incoherent, just to dramatize the topic of this chapter.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
Along one wall, a 19th-century trompe l’oeil screen dramatizes the classical gentlemanly taste that dominated among Neo-Confucian elites.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
That shaving scene referenced earlier dramatizes why this and other supposedly neutral policies painfully disfavor some people without diving into a medical manual.
From Salon ● Oct. 10, 2025
Betty represents tangible reality while Norma embodies seductive illusion in a musical that dramatizes the unfair fight between them for Joe’s jaded soul.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 12, 2024
She was dropped by her publisher and resigned from several boards she served on after “When They See Us,” which dramatizes the events surrounding the trial, debuted.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 4, 2024
It dramatizes sound with unique artistic rhythm and design.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
There was a church on site, although this moment in the film was dramatized.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
Here’s what is true and what is dramatized in “Pressure.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
In the meantime, this highly ambitious, informative and entertaining series takes the most analyzed, scrutinized, dramatized and idealized event of the 20th century and makes it feel like something you never learned about in school.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
Melies ended up as a toy seller in Paris’ Gare Montparnasse train station -- a story that was dramatized in Martin Scorsese’s 2011 film, "Hugo."
From Barron's ● Apr. 13, 2026
It dramatized three situations that, we were told, had actually occurred in the past two years.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
The Webb score is subtle and insinuating, but it could also be explosive, as in the devastating discovery cue dramatizing the heroine’s realization that she is being poisoned.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
Cristina Rivera Garza’s “Autobiography of Cotton” begins by dramatizing a 1934 agricultural strike in northern Mexico.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 29, 2026
Why was it important to you to tell this story as a documentary versus dramatizing it?
From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2024
With a few notable exceptions, the result is often over the top or absurd, in part because it’s hard to dramatize an industry already busy dramatizing itself.
From New York Times ● Jun. 19, 2024
When Hale was on the stand, he gestured wildly, dramatizing how the electricity had allegedly jolted his body.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
