valorize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of valorize
First recorded in 1905–10; from Late Latin valor “worth” ( see valor) + -ize
Explanation
To valorize something is to emphasize or enhance its value or importance. Some filmmakers valorize war, making it look noble and exciting on screen. As one who loves to lounge around and take frequent naps, you might feel misunderstood by a culture that valorizes hard work at the expense of rest and relaxation. Economists use the word valorize in a different way, to describe what a government does when it intervenes in a market to fix, increase, or maintain the prices of goods or services or the value of its currency. Valorize comes from the Late Latin valorem, "value or worth," and a root meaning "be strong."
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:
Sander does not romanticize, valorize or flatter them: The even lighting comes from an overcast sky; they are dressed in dark suits and hats, one smokes a cigarette, and each sports a cane.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 16, 2026
But I also adored that Frémaux was so clearly tickled to valorize an audience-thrilling blockbuster, because Cannes can do that, too.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2026
It didn’t valorize or glamorize the economic downturn; it just portrayed it in the way that the people who lived there experienced it.
From Salon ● Jan. 27, 2026
"In general chemistry we learn that carbon dioxide reacts with hydroxide to form carbonate. That's undesired because it depletes the molecule we want to valorize," said Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Molecular Engineering Chibueze Amanchukwu.
From Science Daily ● May 24, 2024
How could the schools valorize men and women whose values society actively scorned?
From "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
By rooting “Cowboy Carter” in the kind of hand-played sounds the academy has long valorized, Beyoncé almost seems to be daring the organization to withhold the award for a fifth time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2025
If they learn at all, they don't learn until they're older, so they've already idealized this valorized idea of America in their head and they can't comport the two things.
From Salon ● Oct. 24, 2023
“They may not be valorized as good design, but people’s attitudes will change.”
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 23, 2023
The Chinese soldiers sent by Mao Zedong across the frozen Yalu River to support North Korea are valorized in official Communist Party history, and those who died, including Mao’s son Mao Anying, are considered martyrs.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 14, 2021
A federal loan of £9,000,000, with 4,535,000 bags of valorized coffee as collateral, was placed in London and New York in May, 1922.
From All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers
Institutions must take account of race, for sure, but without valorizing it to an extent that ends up compounding racist stereotyping itself.
From Salon ● Nov. 10, 2024
The company began life in the 1950s building Soviet-designed cars like the Dongfanghong BJ760 sedan, named after a revolutionary anthem — “the east is red” — valorizing Mao Zedong.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 21, 2022
They lament the toll of physical labor, while also valorizing its clarifying power.
From New York Times ● Nov. 13, 2021
It is interested in shocks and thrills, in valorizing its antihero’s put-upon haplessness, in exploiting potent and crucial protest messages for the lulz.
From Slate ● Jan. 13, 2020
But “Marie, Dancing Still” also can go mawkish, valorizing its flawed characters into heroes and glossing the demimonde grit in an era when everything was not beautiful at the ballet.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 6, 2019
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.
