sacralize

American  

[sey-kruh-lahyz, sak-ruh-] / ˈseɪ krəˌlaɪz, ˈsæk rə- /

especially British, sacralise

verb (used with object)

sacralized, sacralizing

1. to make sacred; imbue with sacred character, especially through ritualized devotion.

   a society that sacralized science.

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Other Word Forms

• sacralization
  noun

Etymology

Origin of sacralize

First recorded in 1930–35; sacral ¹ + -ize

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sacralize sacralized sacralizing

But Rushdoony provided a way to sacralize these ideas, and at the same time not just tear down the old order, but provide a blueprint for the new order.

From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2021

Professor, activist and author Maulana Karenga would ritualize and sacralize the cultural and moral underpinnings of these practices in the seven principles of Kwanzaa.

From Salon ● Nov. 20, 2019

Garfunkel’s hymnlike harmonies served to sacralize Simon’s songs, although the significance of this became clear only after the duo split up, in the early nineteen-seventies.

From The New Yorker ● May 9, 2016

I wonder if we can evolve technologies of looking on the Web that solemnize and sacralize.

From Slate ● Nov. 6, 2014

But I do not like the tendency to sacralize artists and in that way raise whatever they do above earthly questioning.

From New York Times ● Jan. 31, 2013

The more sacralized a figure, the harder it becomes to discuss their flaws, mistakes or controversial actions.

From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2025

But this isn’t the first time a coach has sacralized football as the fundament of America.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 25, 2018

With the war of 1939-1945 having been sacralized as the moment when the Greatest Generation saved humankind, the war-formerly-known-as-The-Great-War collects dust in the bottom drawer of American collective consciousness.

From Salon ● Jun. 9, 2018

Its Hitchcockian devices include audacious and terrifying point-of-view shots, sacralized torments of guilt and responsibility, and, above all, the tragic irony of the aftermath.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 14, 2016

In the nation-state, ethnicity, culture and language can become sacralized and the Holocaust was the most terrible example of the besetting sin of nationalism, its intolerance of minorities who do not fit the national profile.

From New York Times ● Dec. 26, 2014

This sacralizing of Lincoln’s death continued as his body was borne across the country to be laid to rest in his hometown of Springfield, Ill.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 26, 2018