theatricalize
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to put into dramatic or theatrical form; dramatize.
-
to express or represent in a spectacular or extravagantly histrionic manner.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of theatricalize
First recorded in 1770–80; theatrical + -ize
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.
See Examples For:
Instead of trying to theatricalize its story through finding playable action, The Inheritance tries to solve the problem of adapting a literary work through emphasizing its literariness.
From Slate ● Dec. 12, 2019
Though all were powerful, they faced a common difficulty: How to theatricalize in one gesture both individual devastation and collective disaster.
From New York Times ● Dec. 4, 2018
And not only to vote but also to theatricalize their public commitment to voting.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2018
I did everything I could to theatricalize him in the extreme.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 29, 2016
“It presents itself as almost the impossible task: to theatricalize a sprawling and unruly wilderness,” said Joe Tantalo, who is directing.
From New York Times ● Oct. 2, 2014
Even though Gardiner has theatricalized the typically sparse musical with more ambitious design elements and stagecraft, Smith’s storytelling and vocals still carry the show.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 7, 2022
“The Mahabharata,’' Brook’s epic production created with co-director Marie-Hélène Estienne and dramatist Jean-Claude Carrière, theatricalized for Western audiences the vast Hindu epic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2022
The proceedings can seem less like a fresh retelling of a seminal story and more like, despite stabs at grit and terror, a theatricalized, dewy-eyed version of days past.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2015
At a certain point, Mr. Norris forsakes realism for theatricalized fantasy, and “Broken” ultimately loses its stylistic cohesion, if not its humanity.
From New York Times ● Jul. 18, 2013
“Literature that is lifelike in essence, moral without being hypocritical, dramatic without being theatricalized, inspiring without being preachy.”
From In the Heart of a Fool by White, William Allen
That sentence was so clear and so moving, and I started thinking about theatricalizing the idea that one person can literally be your whole world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2025
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.
