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

Most successful writers, it may be said, stylize their public behavior to some degree.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026

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

I don’t mean books about autism, but, rather, novels that include characters who have autism or that use symptoms of the disorder as a metaphor or plot device, or to stylize language.

From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2019

Bukele accompanied his social media post with a video of soldiers filing into planes and cargo being loaded, a stylized compilation that is a hallmark of his tireless social media presence.

From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026

I have to make the reality stylized, but I don’t want to do it in English, because then everything is a construct.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026

But that is the great joy of Anderson’s “Resident Evil” films: They are so remarkably stylized, so absurdly over-the-top, so referential and deferent to Anderson’s own inspirations, that they’ve become singular visions.

From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026

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

From Slate ● Sep. 18, 2026

Maria deftly combined scientific information with gorgeously stylized leaves and flowers.

From "The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science" by Joyce Sidman

It’s stylizing a thing that, at some unconscious level, you’re afraid of.

From New York Times ● Aug. 29, 2019

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

“It was all about him trying to get me into his thrall with stylizing himself as the victim,” she says.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 11, 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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