stylize

American  

[stahy-lahyz] / ˈstaɪ laɪz /

especially British, stylise

verb (used with object)

stylized, stylizing

1. to design in or cause to conform to a particular style, as of representation or treatment in art; conventionalize.

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stylize British  

/ ˈstaɪlaɪz /

verb

1. (tr) to give a conventional or established stylistic form to

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Other Word Forms

• nonstylization
  noun
• stylization
  noun
• stylizer
  noun
• nonstylized
  adjective
• unstylized
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of stylize

First recorded in 1895–1900; style + -ize

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Explanation

The verb stylize means to represent something according to a particular format or structure, rather than the rules of nature. You won't recognize yourself in these photographs because the photographer used a computer program and stylized everyone to look like stick figures. Stylize is from the word style, which is itself from the Latin word stilus, which means a set manner of expression or writing. Other words from the same root word include stylization, stylus, and stiletto. You may prefer your detective movies to be realistic, rather than the stylized works of film noir.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stylize stylized stylizing

The database then served as graphic inspiration, allowing the computer to stylize the shots of the cities where the film takes place, accelerating production that would otherwise have taken years.

From Barron's ● Mar. 10, 2026

“The Western was born at the beginning of the century with cinema. What Hollywood did was create the American epic and also stylize their reality,” says Almodóvar, speaking alongside Hawke.

From Seattle Times ● May 23, 2023

Unfortunately, you can’t stylize your captions — you’re pretty much stuck with what you get, which tends to be white lettering on a slightly darkened rectangle.

From The Verge ● Jul. 9, 2021

Like Ellington, Sorey wrote with his performers in mind, encouraging them to stylize his writing and “make that music yours.”

From New York Times ● Jan. 7, 2021

In the future, we may be able to stylize the interior with our own lighting, videoscapes, and soundtracks.

From Slate ● Mar. 15, 2018

I found the second act less rewarding, and inconclusive, as the play becomes more fantastical and stylized.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

There was a stylized poster of Che Guevara celebrating a little-known holiday on Oct.

From Slate ● Sep. 18, 2026

Another place where Dulli’s vocals are at the forefront is on “My Lover,” where the lead vocal has a stylized texture that feels like Dulli even if it doesn’t sound like him.

From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2026

Kim’s thin outlines and gentle washes clearly bear the influence of nihonga, the stylized, modern version of classical Japanese painting that he studied in Tokyo.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026

He lay the key on the nightstand, then frowned and picked up the stylized iron wheel and put it back around his neck before snuffing the lamp and crawling into bed.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

Parker and Stone take that personal license and run with it, stylizing their own experience instead of trivializing someone else’s.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 2, 2020

And by stylizing the combat, Robbins has made it especially suspenseful and tragic.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 12, 2019

Staring into childhood trauma, stylizing it, exploring it from the vantage of maturity in order to understand the construction of the self: Such therapeutic forensics are so common among artists that they’re almost a cliché.

From New York Times ● Dec. 13, 2018

Williams’s performance is just as confident: you can hear Blige’s gospel–R. & B. stylizing in her harmonies, from the iconic opening, “Boy you should know thaaat,” to its deep-digging pre-chorus, “to have you, hold you, squeeze youuu.”

From The New Yorker ● Nov. 4, 2016

In fact, human culture is very largely the selection, the rearrangement, the tracing of patterns upon, and the stylizing of, what William James called "the random irradiations and resettlements of our ideas."

From Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann

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