idealize

American  

[ahy-dee-uh-lahyz] / aɪˈdi əˌlaɪz /

especially British, idealise

verb (used with object)

• idealizes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• idealized,
  past participle,  past
• idealizing
  present participle

1. to make ideal; represent in an ideal form or character; exalt to an ideal perfection or excellence.

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verb (used without object)

• idealizes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• idealized,
  past participle,  past
• idealizing
  present participle

1. to represent something in an ideal form.

idealize British  

/ aɪˈdɪəˌlaɪz /

verb

1. to consider or represent (something) as ideal

2. (tr) to portray as ideal; glorify

3. (intr) to form an ideal or ideals

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• idealizer
  noun
• overidealize
  verb
• unidealized
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• idealizing
  present
• idealized
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• idealize
  simple
• idealizes
  simple
• have idealized
  perfect
• has idealized
  perfect
• am idealizing
  progressive
• are idealizing
  progressive
• is idealizing
  progressive
• have been idealizing
  perfect progressive
• has been idealizing
  perfect progressive

Past

• idealized
  simple
• had idealized
  perfect
• was idealizing
  progressive
• were idealizing
  progressive
• had been idealizing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will idealize
  simple
• will have idealized
  perfect
• will be idealizing
  progressive
• will have been idealizing
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of idealize

First recorded in 1780–90; ideal + -ize

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Explanation

When you idealize something, you think of it as being much better than it really is. You might idealize your beach vacation, completely forgetting that it rained almost every day. If you idealize your favorite teacher, you imagine that he's even more wonderful than he actually is. Many people tend to idealize marriage, believing that simply being married will make them and their partners blissfully happy all the time. To idealize is to take an ordinary, flawed thing, and turn it into something ideal. In fact, ideal, or "perfect," is at the heart of idealize, with its root of the Latin idealis, or "existing in idea."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

idealize idealizes idealized idealizing

“What’s important is to not make a myth or idealize anyone, including our founder. If we made a myth out of him, we were wrong,” she said.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 28, 2023

A number of Googlers I spoke with framed January’s job cuts—which took place via email—as a wake-up call for Googlers who still idealize their employer.

From Slate ● Feb. 9, 2023

Hornby is best known for “High Fidelity,” a peerless portrait of how a certain type of young man uses pop music to both idealize women, and carefully cultivate an emotional distance from them.

From New York Times ● Jan. 25, 2023

“I think that a lot of people almost idealize our jobs,” said Kim Yutani, director of programming for the Sundance Film Festival.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 20, 2023

Not much to idealize when you know your aunt is crying herself to sleep next door and nothing can be done.

From "Where Things Come Back" by John Corey Whaley

Either he doesn’t write about it or he idealizes it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 19, 2023

Called "splitting," Behr defined this as "the person devalues and idealizes you or others."

From Salon ● Jan. 26, 2023

Unlike the critic George Saintsbury, who looked to 18th-century literature for “repose and refreshment,” Damrosch never idealizes or whitewashes.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 17, 2019

“It felt like their approach to exploring how money influences family bonds would be original and not another story that idealizes the wealthy and powerful of this world.”

From New York Times ● Mar. 18, 2018

Just as he idealizes Caroline, he paints the Loyers as the perfect mother and daughter.

From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman

We would like to leave no moment uncaptured, would like to at least try to become pearly, hairless, omniscient idealized beings, even if this desire lurks somewhere beneath what we’d consciously admit.

From Slate ● Sep. 14, 2026

The researchers suggest that one reason the idea took more than two decades to demonstrate is that the original theory was developed under idealized conditions that are difficult to reproduce experimentally.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 31, 2026

Worried about its future and often nostalgic for an idealized past, it's fair to say that much of America saw itself in Dolly Parton.

From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026

I’m a late bloomer and worried I’m still missing out on living by being stuck in these idealized fantasies of what love could be.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

She fed it with fantasies, idealized it, savagely defended it, stripped it of its prosaic truth, and turned it into the kind of love one found in novels.

From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende

“They start idealizing their old culture; suddenly things seem much nicer than when they lived at home,” she said.

From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2026

This verdict is in keeping with the tenor of the last 50 years of classical scholarship, which has moved past—perhaps too far past—any idealizing visions of Pericles and Athens.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026

She maintains a nuanced sense of humanity’s transgressions and innocence, without demonizing or idealizing either side.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2025

As Eloise gets pulled more into Sandie’s life, things get progressively darker, and the film becomes a cautionary tale about the dangers of idealizing a time and place, and about female rage.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 26, 2021

Not a lot, but enough to keep a dreamer from idealizing the object of his long fascination.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

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Related Words

• glorify

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