Word.ws English Dictionary

literalise

literalise is the alternative form of literalize.

Meaning of literalize

Verb

literalize (third-person singular simple present literalizes, present participle literalizing, simple past and past participle literalized)

  1. To make literal or prosaic
    • The popular "peephole" style of cover art, suggesting stolen glimpses into exotic interior territories at once psychological and geographical, literalized the voyeuristic appeal of early postwar paperback art.2001, Susan Stryker, Queer Pulp, page 7

Forms of literalise

third-person singular presentliteralises
present participleliteralising
past participleliteralised
pastliteralised

Origin of literalise

From literal + -ise.

Words formed from literalise

Questions about literalise

What is literalise the alternative form of?
Literalise is the alternative form of literalize.

Words near literalise in the dictionary

  1. literal theonymy
  2. literal who
  3. literal-minded
  4. literalisation
  5. literalisations
  6. literalise
  7. literalised
  8. literaliser
  9. literalisers
  10. literalises
  11. literalising

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: literalise (page history and authors); literalize (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: “literalise.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/literalise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.