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

Etymology

Origin of stylize

First recorded in 1895–1900; style + -ize

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

“I think we were homing in on Leyendecker because of his ability to stylize, to make characters feel monumental,” he says.

From The Verge ● Sep. 2, 2021

They stylize things and it was a movie for fun.

From Slate ● Aug. 10, 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

He used those reference images for the AI character and transforms them into a stylized person, with a personality, backstory and visual details.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026

Steve Buscemi appeared in a pre-recorded comedic bit, and Eminem surfaced in a stylized role as a fire marshal figure in a sketch that helped drive the episode’s surreal tone.

From Salon ● May 23, 2026

That symbolism has only become more visible in recent months amid renewed attention on gold Trump statues, AI-generated heroic imagery and other forms of highly stylized political branding circulating online.

From Salon ● May 10, 2026

It is clothed and unclothed; decorated and distorted; idealized, stylized, politicized.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 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

It was Jolicoeur’s innovation to raid their dads’ closets for bell bottoms and straighten the legs, not to mention stylizing their asymmetrical haircuts.

From New York Times ● Feb. 13, 2023

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

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 Lippmann, Walter