sermonize

American  

[sur-muh-nahyz] / ˈsɜr məˌnaɪz /

especially British, sermonise

verb (used without object)

sermonized, sermonizing

1. to deliver or compose a sermon; preach.

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verb (used with object)

sermonized, sermonizing

1. to give exhortation to; lecture.

sermonize British  

/ ˈsɜːməˌnaɪz /

verb

1. to talk to or address (a person or audience) as if delivering a sermon

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Other Word Forms

• sermonizer
  noun

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Etymology

Origin of sermonize

First recorded in 1625–35; sermon + -ize

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Explanation

To sermonize is to lecture someone in the style of a minister delivering a sermon. The best teachers don't sermonize; they talk to students in a sincere and straightforward way. If you tell someone at length what they should do, especially if there's plenty of judgment and moral superiority in your speech, you sermonize. This verb can also be used simply to mean "give a sermon," so you could also say that you like church because your minister sermonizes so well. This was the earliest meaning of sermonize, which comes from the Latin sermo, "speech, conversation, or talk."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sermonize sermonized sermonizing

Johnson said he didn’t mean to sermonize but it’s clear he’s the kind of artist who sees the stage as a pulpit and the arena as a church.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 28, 2024

As with his live-action efforts, Peele never sought to sermonize but only to spark dialogue about important social topics.

From New York Times ● Oct. 27, 2022

This upcoming Easter Sunday, he intends to sermonize on which one would prevail.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 7, 2020

With a zealous quickening, Brooks begins to sermonize, not about his own soul but the country’s.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 29, 2019

My grandmother was the only white person who ever heard W. D. Fard sermonize, and she understood less than half of what he said.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

“Haha You Clowns” isn’t like the old “Davey and Goliath” or “South Park,” which purposely sermonized.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025

The Rev. Charles Cannon, pastor at St. Hilary’s Episcopal Church, sermonized about the temporariness of the community’s losses.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 3, 2022

By the time he returned, nearly all of the churches that the Porter family had sermonized in along Lakeview Avenue and Union Avenue were rubble.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2020

John — called Preacher because he sermonized chickens — was the odd child out.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 17, 2020

Ministers sermonized about the bread, variously interpreting it as a call to charity, a warning against gluttony, a parable of the evanescence of all earthly things, and a divine joke.

From Bread Overhead by Fritz Leiber

And Hall took his own sermonizing to heart.

From Slate ● Sep. 18, 2026

It’s gripping and informative without sermonizing — everything a great documentary should be.

From Salon ● Feb. 28, 2025

At times, Christian movies can feel formulaic and forced, sometimes preferring sermonizing to storytelling.

From Washington Times ● Aug. 24, 2023

Are viewers craving more carnage and darkness or cable news sermonizing?

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2023

Intricate plotting, marvelous mysteries, clear-cut science without empiricism, speculative reasoning, sermonizing, historical facts, and bold theorizing make up the tissue of the story, while the spirit of Etidorhpa, the spirit of love, pervades it all....

From Etidorhpa or the End of Earth. The Strange History of a Mysterious Being and The Account of a Remarkable Journey by John Uri Lloyd

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