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

The earliest Olympic mascot wasn’t formally a mascot, but Schuss, a stylized Z-shaped figure on skis.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026

What once would have required a professional production team can now be created and distributed in hours, allowing supporters and campaigns to produce highly stylized portrayals of political figures at scale.

From Salon ● Jun. 6, 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

The fence has an entrance with a gigantic, stylized statue of a woman with huge earrings.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Nick was playing with a professional team called TH3 NSAN3Z — stylizing theirs — when they won the Gears of War 2 national championship in 2009 and the team walked home $40,000 richer.

From The Verge ● Apr. 22, 2021

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