sensationalize
verb (used with object)
to make sensational.
sensationalized
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past participleof sensationalize.past participle
A verb form used in perfect and passive verb constructions and that can also function as a modifier.
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past tense formof sensationalize.past tense
Used to describe completed actions or previous habitual actions.
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.
Because the investigation has been sensationalized in the press, the objective of the interviews is to present a fair and fully dimensional picture of the Sharaf family.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026
However, some analysts believe Claude Cowork is the latest sensationalized headline feeding into an overly pessimistic narrative of AI eating software.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 15, 2026
TikTok clips, podcasts, and celebrity advocates, including Kim Kardashian, helped reframe their story for younger audiences, highlighting claims of childhood abuse and trauma that were largely overshadowed during their sensationalized trials of the 1990s.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2025
Truth and facts vary wildly depending on where you get your news, which is made all the more complicated by the fire hose of information on social media—some of it fake, much of it sensationalized.
From Slate ● Oct. 29, 2024
The impetus was the publication of a highly sensationalized book, The Hydrogen Bomb: The Men, The Menace, The Mechanism, by journalists James Shepley and Clay Blair Jr., which accepted Teller’s version of events as gospel.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
