televise
Americanverb (used with or without object)
verb
-
to put (a programme) on television
-
(tr) to transmit (a programme, signal, etc) by television
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of televise
First recorded in 1925–30; back formation from television
Explanation
You're most likely to televise something if you work at a TV station — to televise is to transmit or broadcast on a television. A high school with a winning basketball team might decide to televise games on a local station so everyone in town can watch them on TV. Judges presiding over trials sometimes allow news channels to televise them, although often they don't. The verb televise grew out of the word television, modeled on verbs like revise and advise. The word television combines tele, "far off" in Greek, and vision, "something seen in the imagination," from a Latin root.
Vocabulary lists containing televise
Common Senses: Vid, Vis ("See")
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Far and Away: Tele
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Academy Awards, List 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Lebanon was due to make its debut in 2005, but its laws made it nearly impossible to show Israel's performance so it withdrew when the EBU confirmed it had to televise the whole show.
From BBC • May 10, 2026
Riding alongside was Netflix, the streaming behemoth, which once famously said it didn’t care to televise real sporting events, and I guess we’ll have to take them at their word here.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 20, 2025
The fallout: a November settlement that allowed TNT Sports and Bleacher Report to broadcast games in certain international markets, but no more rights to televise live games in the United States.
From Slate • Jun. 10, 2025
Discovery balked, and while the two sides have continued negotiating, the company now finds itself on the verge of losing the rights to televise the sport with which it has become inextricably linked.
From New York Times • Jun. 16, 2024
When they televise the replay of the reapings tonight, everyone will make note of my tears, and I'll be marked as an easy target.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
