Word.ws English Dictionary

athetize

UK/ˈæθətaɪz//ˈæθəˌtaɪz/

athetize verb: to reject a passage of text as spurious.

Verb

athetize (third-person singular simple present athetizes, present participle athetizing, simple past and past participle athetized)

  1. (British, English, Oxford, US, transitive) To reject a passage of text as spurious.
    • But this is a doubtful compliment to a ship ; the alternative "a first-rate sailor," suits the context better, and so here, "or first-rate build," primarie compacti (Döderl[ein]), avoids the awkward tautology with νεοτευχέες which made Zenod[otos] athetize the line.1886, Walter Leaf, The Iliad: Edited with English Notes and Introduction, volume 1, London: Macmillan and Co., translation of Ἰλιάς [Iliás] by Homer, page 157, column 2
    • All of this, of course, flies in the face of μιχτὴν ϱ̔αψῳδίαων. But that phrase is suspicious in its own right. It was bracketed long ago by Tyrwhitt, and the Arabic version translates it strangely if at all. […] In short, there is every reason to athetize μιχτὴν ραψῳδίαων as a note of late origin...1957, Gerald F. Else, chapter 1, in Aristotle's Poetics: The Argument, Leiden: E. J. Brill, →LCCN, pages 58–59

Forms of athetize

third-person singular presentathetizes
present participleathetizing
past participleathetized
pastathetized
alternative formathetise

Origin of athetize

From Ancient Greek ἄθετος (áthetos, “removed”), from τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put, place”).

Questions about athetize

What does athetize mean?
Athetize means to reject a passage of text as spurious.
What part of speech is athetize?
Athetize is a verb.
How do you pronounce athetize?
Athetize is pronounced /ˈæθətaɪz/ (UK).
What is the past tense of athetize?
The past tense of athetize is athetized.

Words near athetize in the dictionary

  1. athetesis
  2. athetise
  3. athetised
  4. athetises
  5. athetising
  6. athetize
  7. athetized
  8. athetizes
  9. athetizing
  10. athetoid
  11. athetoses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: athetize (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-athetize.wav.

Cite this entry: “athetize.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/athetize. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.