canonize
Americanverb (used with object)
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Ecclesiastical. to place in the canon of saints.
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to glorify.
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to make canonical; place or include within a canon, especially of scriptural works.
They canonized the Song of Solomon after much controversy.
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to consider or treat as sacrosanct or holy.
They canonized his many verbal foibles and made them gospel.
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to sanction or approve authoritatively, especially ecclesiastically.
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Archaic. to deify.
verb
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RC Church to declare (a person) to be a saint and thus admit to the canon of saints
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to regard as holy or as a saint
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to sanction by canon law; pronounce valid
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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canonizationnoun
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canonizernoun
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supercanonizationnoun
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uncanonizationnoun
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uncanonizeverb (used with object)
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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canonizesimple
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canonizessimple
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have canonizedperfect
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has canonizedperfect
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am canonizingprogressive
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are canonizingprogressive
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is canonizingprogressive
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have been canonizingperfect progressive
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has been canonizingperfect progressive
Past
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canonizedsimple
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had canonizedperfect
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was canonizingprogressive
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were canonizingprogressive
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had been canonizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of canonize
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English; canon 1 ( def. ) + -ize ( def. )
Explanation
When you canonize a person, you put him on a pedestal — in other words, you think he's so wonderful that he can do no wrong. You might canonize your grandmother after she dies, choosing to remember her as a saint who never raised her voice and was kind to everyone. When the Roman Catholic Church canonizes someone, it has a slightly different meaning. The Church canonizes people who have performed miracles and are declared — literally — to be saints. The literal meaning is "place in the canon of saints," and it comes from the Latin canon, "church rule."
Vocabulary lists containing canonize
World Religions
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Angela's Ashes
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for May 14–May 20, 2022
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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.
See Examples For:
Memes, livestreams and hashtags now allow anyone to canonize someone they admire.
From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2025
As we posthumously canonize David Lynch, it might be tempting to assume he came out of the womb the supremely confident, eccentric auteur the world became enthralled by in the 1980s and ’90s.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2025
“It’s a gift of God that Pope Francis — an Argentine pope, a Jesuit pope — can canonize her,” he said.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 11, 2024
“This is about who we canonize and who are our real saints,” Dr. Prescod-Weinstein said in an interview.
From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2022
As for the date of the event, it is stated definitely and rather strikingly in these words: "They will want to canonize me, but there will not be time."
From The Wrack of the Storm by Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander
For all his popularity, Francis will fuel a controversy on Wednesday when he canonizes Father Junipero Serra, an 18th century Franciscan missionary who established the California mission system that helped transform the West.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2015
Pope Benedict swiftly canonizes a deserving trio of new saints.
From Slate ● Feb. 19, 2013
A refreshingly direct and amusingly tactless interrogator, he neither sentimentalizes nor canonizes his feisty models, who handle their variously truncated limbs with casual practicality.
From New York Times ● Apr. 16, 2010
On September 4, Mother Teresa will be elevated to sainthood when Pope Francis canonizes her at the Vatican.
From National Geographic
And Tsao Chün, 166–167 Li Shih-min, Emperor; and legend of the five graduates, 243 sq.; and Chang T’ien-shih, 243 sq.; visited by spirits of the graduates, 245–246; canonizes the graduates, 246 Li T’ieh-kuai.
From Myths and Legends of China by Werner, E. T. C. (Edward Theodore Chalmers)
Nicknamed “God’s influencer,” Carlo was canonized for his internet evangelism, his faith amid fatal sickness and other reasons, including two healing miracles attributed to his posthumous intervention.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025
As Britpop began to cohere into a recognizable genre and vision, Suede was canonized as its originators, only to be largely eclipsed as bands like Blur and Oasis came to define the movement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2025
Catholic school nuns practically canonized John F. Kennedy, never ceasing to remind us students that he was the first Catholic President.
From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2024
Known as the “mother of outcasts,” Marianne Cope, who was born in Germany, died at Kalaupapa in 1918 of natural causes and was canonized in 2012.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 1, 2023
Poverty was a gleaming thing; she could not conceive of poor people being vicious or nasty because their poverty had canonized them, and the greatest saints were the foreign poor.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Zalasiewicz, a geologist at the University of Leicester, has expressed support for canonizing the Anthropocene.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 9, 2024
Advocates in the fight against child sex trafficking, by contrast, take issue with the film for canonizing the controversial operations of Ballard and his former organization, Operation Underground Railroad.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2023
Perhaps the director Jim Jarmusch was worried that the bad behavior would detract from his efforts at canonizing Iggy Pop’s group, the Stooges, which he calls “the greatest rock ’n’ roll band ever.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 23, 2017
By canonizing Mother Teresa, he is clearly aiming to give his Holy Year of Mercy an icon for the faithful to venerate around the world.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 18, 2015
From the Cathedral spires the Rogjans called out to the countryside some cantorial chants, announcing and honouring, and strangely, even canonizing the Cardinal Allen.
From Scorched Earth by Petrovic, Walter D.
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.
