Word.ws English Dictionary

humorize

humorize verb: to humor someone.

Verb

humorize (third-person singular simple present humorizes, present participle humorizing, simple past and past participle humorized)

  1. (rare, transitive) To humor someone.
  2. (rare, transitive) To make (an often-serious topic) humorous.
    • There are hundreds of terms for masturbation in men such as "spanking the monkey" or "charming the snake," which serve to humorize but also to avoid directly discussing the topic.2023 February 9, Jon E. Grant, Samuel R. Chamberlain, Impulse: The Science of Sex and Desire, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 38
    • […] that were invented by the servicemen and women to undercut, satirize, humorize, and ironize their bleak situation, and to "evoke the cant of horse-age military supply."2001, Christopher Edgar, Gary Lenhart, editors, The Teachers & Writers Guide to Classic American Literature, Teachers & Writers, →ISBN, page 267

Examples of humorize in a sentence

  • That is, in both subtle and blatant ways, utterances report, assert, confirm, claim, doubt, deny, imply, suggest, hint, request, command, forbid, humorize, belittle, pronounce, decree, and so on.2016 December 8, Robert W. Schrauf, Mixed Methods: Interviews, Surveys, and Cross-Cultural Comparisons, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN:
  • […] to my family and friends who will understand my candor, my sarcastic licks, intensity in openness and my own unique way to “humorize” life's experiences.2010 March 11, John W. Edwards III, 2012 Global Warning, iUniverse, →ISBN:
  • I was able to humorize the situation and make it not sound so serious to her.2019 November 11, Earl Spivey, Tears of Gethsemane: A Pastor's Journey through Leukemia, Christian Faith Publishing, Inc., →ISBN:

Forms of humorize

third-person singular presenthumorizes
present participlehumorizing
past participlehumorized
pasthumorized
alternative formhumorise
alternative formhumourise
alternative formhumourize

Origin of humorize

From humor + -ize.

Questions about humorize

What does humorize mean?
Humorize means to humor someone.
How do you use humorize in a sentence?
That is, in both subtle and blatant ways, utterances report, assert, confirm, claim, doubt, deny, imply, suggest, hint, request, command, forbid, humorize, belittle, pronounce, decree, and so on.
What part of speech is humorize?
Humorize is a verb.
What is the past tense of humorize?
The past tense of humorize is humorized.

Words near humorize in the dictionary

  1. humorist
  2. humoristic
  3. humoristical
  4. humoristically
  5. humorists
  6. humorize
  7. humorized
  8. humorizes
  9. humorizing
  10. humorless
  11. humorlessly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: humorize (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: “humorize.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/humorize. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.