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

Etymology

Origin of sermonize

First recorded in 1625–35; sermon + -ize

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

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

His family attended weekly Mass to hear McGuire sermonize and took part in his spiritual retreats, events where McGuire began to acquire a cult-like following.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 30, 2019

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

“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

When Arnold, “rapt in devotion or vibrant with exhortation,” sermonized in Rugby chapel, it is said that he “propounded the general principles both of his own conduct and that of the Almighty.”

From Washington Post ● Jan. 30, 2018

He could talk morals to others in the grand manner, and with positive enjoyment, but to be sermonized himself secretly exasperated him because it constrained him and made him self-conscious.

From The Price of Love by Arnold Bennett

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

As a character, Miss Liza Jane combines the hauteur of opera diva Jessye Norman and the sermonizing wisdom of Maya Angelou.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 29, 2023

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

From Washington Times ● Aug. 24, 2023

"The author scarcely had a thought of sermonizing his readers, but each of these little stories presents a moral not easily overlooked, and whose influence lingers with those who read them."

From The Green Carnation by Robert Smythe Hichens