Word.ws English Dictionary

lionize

/ˈlaɪənaɪz/

lionize verb: to treat (a person) as if they were important, or a celebrity.

Verb

lionize (third-person singular simple present lionizes, present participle lionizing, simple past and past participle lionized)

  1. (British, English, Oxford, US, transitive) To treat (a person) as if they were important, or a celebrity.
    • Flare-riding is one of the most exotic and exhilarating sports in existence, and those who can dare and afford to do it are amongst the most lionized men in the Galaxy.1980 October, Douglas Adams, chapter 18, in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, London: Pan Books, →ISBN, page 106
    • He [Li Wenliang] died of COVID-19 in February, lionized by the Chinese public as a hero and whistleblower.2021 June 3, Katherine Eban, “The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins”, in Vanity Fair, archived from the original on 05 Jun 2021
  2. (British, English, Oxford, US, transitive) To visit (a famous place) in order to revere it.

lionize meaning in Tamil and Malayalam

lionize in Tamil

போற்றுதல்

lionize in Malayalam

glorify, celebrate, fete
വീരപരിവേഷം നൽകുക, മഹത്വവത്കരിക്കുക, വിഖ്യാതനാക്കുക, വലുതാക്കുക, മതിപ്പുളവാകുംവിധം അവതരിപ്പിക്കുക, കൊണ്ടാടുക

Forms of lionize

third-person singular presentlionizes
present participlelionizing
past participlelionized
pastlionized
alternative formlionise

Origin of lionize

From lion + -ize.

Words formed from lionize

Questions about lionize

What does lionize mean?
Lionize means to treat (a person) as if they were important, or a celebrity.
What is lionize in Tamil?
Lionize in Tamil is போற்றுதல். See Lionize meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is lionize?
Lionize is a verb.
How do you pronounce lionize?
Lionize is pronounced /ˈlaɪənaɪz/.
What is the past tense of lionize?
The past tense of lionize is lionized.

Words near lionize in the dictionary

  1. lionisms
  2. lionitis
  3. lionizable
  4. lionization
  5. lionizations
  6. lionize
  7. lionized
  8. lionizer
  9. lionizers
  10. lionizes
  11. lionizing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lionize (page history and authors); lionize (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lionize (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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: en-us-lionize.ogg.

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