Word.ws English Dictionary

symbolise

symbolise is the alternative form of symbolize.

Meaning of symbolize

Verb

symbolize (third-person singular simple present symbolizes, present participle symbolizing, simple past and past participle symbolized)

  1. (transitive) To be symbolic of; to represent.
    • Doves often symbolize peace.
  2. (intransitive, transitive) To use symbols; to represent ideas symbolically.
  3. (transitive) To convert something into a symbol.
    • The overwhelming majority of these poems consists of wedding-songs, intended for the various ceremonies of the wedding and the daily festivities of the first week after the wedding. But these are not wedding-songs in the ordinary sense. In them, the wedding is symbolized. The poet speaks, indeed...1929, Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish Music: Its Historical Development, page 365
  4. (intransitive, obsolete) To resemble each other in qualities or properties; to correspond; to harmonize.
    • The pleasing of colour symbolizeth with the pleasing of any single tone to the ear; but the pleasing of order doth symbolize with harmony.1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted...
  5. (intransitive, obsolete) To hold the same faith; to agree.
    • The believers in pretended miracles have always previously symbolized with the performers of them.1824, George Stanley Faber, The Difficulties of Infidelity

Forms of symbolise

third-person singular presentsymbolises
present participlesymbolising
past participlesymbolised
pastsymbolised

Words formed from symbolise

Questions about symbolise

What is symbolise the alternative form of?
Symbolise is the alternative form of symbolize.

Words near symbolise in the dictionary

  1. symbolifying
  2. symboling
  3. symbolisable
  4. symbolisation
  5. symbolisations
  6. symbolise
  7. symbolised
  8. symboliser
  9. symbolisers
  10. symbolises
  11. symbolising

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: symbolise (page history and authors); symbolize (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-NaomiAmethyst-symbolise.wav.

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