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)
- To be symbolic of; to represent.
- Doves often symbolize peace.
- To use symbols; to represent ideas symbolically.
- 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
- 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...
- 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 present | symbolises |
|---|---|
| present participle | symbolising |
| past participle | symbolised |
| past | symbolised |
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
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.
