apotheosize
/əˈpɑ.θi.oʊˌsaɪz/
apotheosize means to deify; to convert into a god.
apotheosize is pronounced /əˈpɑ.θi.oʊˌsaɪz/.
Why “apotheosize” is a great word
To elevate someone or something to a godlike status; to glorify to the point of deification. From apotheosis, from Greek apotheōsis, from apo- (from, away) + theos ("god") + -osis ("state, condition") + the English verbal suffix -ize; first recorded in English use in 1695. Unlike lionize, which merely places one on a celebrity pedestal, or extol, which praises specific merits, to apotheosize is to perform a spiritual transfiguration. It is the sculptor chiseling a ruler's likeness into Olympian marble, the hush in a hall where a name is spoken as if it shaped the stars, the scent of incense curling around a portrait hung just a little too high—elevation not as honor, but as erasure of the flawed, the human, the small.
Etymology
From apotheosis + -ize.
verb
- To deify; to convert into a god.
- To exalt; to glorify.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.