obelize
obelize verb: to mark (a written or printed passage) with an obelus; to judge as spurious or doubtful.
Verb
obelize (third-person singular simple present obelizes, present participle obelizing, simple past and past participle obelized)
- To mark (a written or printed passage) with an obelus; to judge as spurious or doubtful.
- All modern classicists like to display due caution before coming to a conclusion and will reluctantly obelise any words in a manuscript that resist obvious emendation before deciding that on balance one version is better than another.2015, James Davidson, “Laugh as long as you can”, in London Review of Books, volume 37, number 14
Forms of obelize
| third-person singular present | obelizes |
|---|---|
| present participle | obelizing |
| past participle | obelized |
| past | obelized |
| alternative form | obelise |
Origin of obelize
From Hellenic Ancient Greek ὀβελίζειν (obelízein), from ὀβελός (obelós, “obelus”).
Questions about obelize
- What does obelize mean?
- Obelize means to mark (a written or printed passage) with an obelus; to judge as spurious or doubtful.
- What part of speech is obelize?
- Obelize is a verb.
- What is the past tense of obelize?
- The past tense of obelize is obelized.
Words near obelize in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: obelize (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:
Cite this entry: “obelize.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/obelize. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.