Word.ws English Dictionary

euphemise

euphemise is the alternative spelling of euphemize.

Meaning of euphemize

Verb

euphemize (third-person singular simple present euphemizes, present participle euphemizing, simple past and past participle euphemized)

  1. (intransitive) To utter one or more euphemisms; to speak euphemistically.
    • There seems to be some support here for the claim that the older group felt a greater need to euphemize in the two contexts in question.1999, A. J. Meier, “When Is a Woman a Lady?”, in American Speech, volume 74, number 1, page 63
  2. (transitive) To describe in euphemistic terms.
    • The pools in general are bedded with black mud, and creamed over with oily flakes which may proceed from the tar on the vessels' sides, and may also from "decomposing animal matter," as we euphemise it now-a-days.1857, Charles Kingsley, chapter 2, in Two Years Ago

Forms of euphemise

third-person singular presenteuphemises
present participleeuphemising
past participleeuphemised
pasteuphemised

Origin of euphemise

From euphem(ism) + -ise.

Words formed from euphemise

Questions about euphemise

What is euphemise the alternative spelling of?
Euphemise is the alternative spelling of euphemize.

Words near euphemise in the dictionary

  1. euphausiids
  2. Euphemia
  3. euphemious
  4. euphemisation
  5. euphemisations
  6. euphemise
  7. euphemised
  8. euphemiser
  9. euphemisers
  10. euphemises
  11. euphemising

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: euphemise (page history and authors); euphemize (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.

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