solemnize
Americanverb (used with object)
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solemnizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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solemnized,
past participle, past
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solemnizing
present participle
-
to perform the ceremony of (marriage).
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to hold or perform (ceremonies, rites, etc.) in due manner.
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to observe or commemorate with rites or ceremonies.
to solemnize an occasion with prayer.
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to go through with ceremony or formality.
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to render solemn, serious, or grave; dignify.
verb (used without object)
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solemnizes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
solemnized,
past participle, past
-
solemnizing
present participle
verb
-
to celebrate or observe with rites or formal ceremonies, as a religious occasion
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to celebrate or perform the ceremony of (marriage)
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to make solemn or serious
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to perform or hold (ceremonies, etc) in due manner
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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solemnizesimple
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solemnizessimple
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have solemnizedperfect
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has solemnizedperfect
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am solemnizingprogressive
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are solemnizingprogressive
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is solemnizingprogressive
-
have been solemnizingperfect progressive
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has been solemnizingperfect progressive
Past
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solemnizedsimple
-
had solemnizedperfect
-
was solemnizingprogressive
-
were solemnizingprogressive
-
had been solemnizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of solemnize
1350–1400; Middle English solempnise < Medieval Latin sōlemnizāre, equivalent to Latin sōlemnis solemn + -izāre -ize
Explanation
When you solemnize something, you make it serious or dignified. You might solemnize a meal by lighting candles and saying grace before you eat. How much fun is it to get to pronounce a letter that is normally silent? You'll know when you wrap your tongue around this one, in which the n, normally silent in solemn, gets to introduce the suffix -ize. Even more fun is the fact that solemnize has a Greek suffix tacked onto a Latin root, sollemnis, or "formal, ceremonial, traditional." But we shouldn't be having so much fun with a verb whose meaning is "perform with dignity or gravity."
Vocabulary lists containing solemnize
"The Lady, or the Tiger?" by Frank R. Stockton
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Hard Times
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As You Like It
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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:
Nine years later, when the United Kingdom allowed same-sex couples to solemnize their marriages in religious ceremonies, Ortega-Medina and his husband married in a Jewish ceremony at West London Synagogue.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 18, 2023
Although Mr. Tenzin is not authorized to solemnize a wedding in Colorado, the state allows for self-solemnizing.
From New York Times ● Aug. 6, 2021
The high court on Tuesday ruled Janetta Gardiner can solemnize her relationship with her boyfriend of three years.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 10, 2014
Questions about how to solemnize Constitution Day sometimes prove far more interesting than Constitution Day itself.
From Slate ● Sep. 16, 2014
But the voice of Hymen calls away To solemnize the rites of this his festal day.
From Studies in the Poetry of Italy, I. Roman by Frank Justus Miller
This is followed by an audience participation segment, in which Edna solemnizes the marriage between two perfect strangers, one of whom happened to be already married.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2015
It solemnizes and legitimizes and dignifies those who have departed into the squalid indignity of death, departed in a way so inhuman that humanity wants to pile on posthumous kindnesses, posthumous significances.
From Time Magazine Archive
To those who are beautiful—and poor Peggy had possessed that frequently fatal gift—death in its first stage, bestows an expression of mournful tenderness that softens while it solemnizes the heart.
From The Black Prophet: A Tale Of Irish Famine Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of William Carleton, Volume Three by William Carleton
I came here humble, poor, and empty-handed, and he solemnizes my return by offering presents to my mother and my sisters!
From The Youth of the Great Elector by L. (Luise) Mühlbach
A something in a summer's day, As sIow her flambeaux burn away, Which solemnizes me.
From Poems by Emily Dickinson, Series One by Thomas Wentworth Higginson
They lured religious leaders out of their homes by pretending to need a marriage solemnized.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 10, 2023
A grand boldness solemnized Mälkki’s performances of Russian scores by Tchaikovsky and Scriabin with the L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2021
“It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
From Fox News ● Jul. 4, 2020
The non-ruling paved the way for same-sex marriages to be solemnized in 11 more states, including Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
From Slate ● Oct. 9, 2014
Then, after the signing and countersigning of the articles of marriage, the betrothal ceremony was solemnized according to the rites of the Church by Cardinal de Rochefoucault, Grand Almoner of the King of France.
From Henrietta Maria by Henrietta Haynes
The Scottish Episcopal Church opened the door to solemnizing same-sex marriages in 2017, the Church of Scotland last May.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 20, 2023
Despite facing an outstanding arrest warrant for solemnizing Arzoo’s marriage, he continued his practice in his ramshackle office above a wholesale rice market in downtown Karachi.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 28, 2020
“I would really love the opportunity to participate in solemnizing Congress,” Barker said in an interview.
From Washington Post ● May 5, 2016
They are therefore not void, simply because the formalities prescribed by statute in obtaining the license and solemnizing the marriage have not been observed, when the parties afterward live together like other married people.
From Putnam's Handy Law Book for the Layman by Albert Sidney Bolles
They were ostentatiously solemnizing the obsequies of the departed monarch.
From Henry IV, Makers of History by John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
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.
