solemnize means to make solemn, or official, through ceremony or legal act. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “solemnize” is a great word
SOLEMNIZE — [Verb] To perform or honor with formal ceremony, especially to make legally or religiously binding. From Middle English solempnisen, from Old French solemnisier, from Medieval Latin solemnizare, from Latin solemnis ("solemn, established, religious"). First attested in Middle English (1350–1400). Unlike "celebrate," which embraces joyous festivity, or "sanctify," which specifically confers holiness, to solemnize is to invest an act with the grave, institutional weight of formal recognition. It is the notary’s seal pressed into warm wax, the deliberate cadence of vows in a hushed chamber, and the indelible stroke of a pen in a registry book—the precise ritual that transmutes private intention into public fact, a small bulwark against the casual erosion of time.
verb
- To make solemn, or official, through ceremony or legal act.“The couple chose to solemnize their relationship in a secular ceremony, instead of having a wedding.”
- To make grave, serious, and reverential.“September 27, 1873, John Campbell Shairp, "Wordsworth's Three Yarrows", in Every Saturday
Wordsworth was solemnized and elevated by this his first look on Yarrow.”