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

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

Hill has a salty beard, smiling eyes and booming voice to sermonize about the suffering he sees so often in the Shenandoah Valley.

From Washington Times ● Nov. 12, 2018

In the other room the woman twists the dial, and voices sermonize from the speaker.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

“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

“This is a driver for the entire United States economy,” O’Rourke sermonized to a crowd packed into the banquet hall at the Social Club in Edinburg.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2018

Catholic priests sermonized against the Molly Maguires, taking instructions from Philadelphia Bishop James Frederick Woods, who excommunicated them.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 30, 2018

So much have they sermonized in chapter that all are driven away.

From The Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond: A Picture of Monastic Life in the Days of Abbot Samson by Jocelin de Brakelond

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

Ms. Haart’s relentless sermonizing can seem abrasive at times.

From New York Times ● Aug. 12, 2021

No need to wait on a sermonizing dispatch from the Great American Lion of Letters.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 5, 2021

Another cause of the popularity of Euphues is its sermonizing.

From The Bibliotaph and Other People by Leon H. (Leon Henry) Vincent

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