Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To serve as a symbol of: "Munich, the 1938 Hitler-Chamberlain meeting that now symbolizes the idea of appeasement” ( Jonathan Alter).
- v. To represent or identify by a symbol.
- v. To use symbols.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To represent by symbols.
- To regard, treat, or introduce as symbolic; make emblematic of something.
- To make to agree in properties.
- To express or represent in symbols or symbolically.
- To agree; conform; harmonize; be or become alike in qualities or properties, in doctrine, or the like.
- Also spelled symbolise.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To have a resemblance of qualities or properties; to correspond; to harmonize.
- v. rare To hold the same faith; to agree.
- v. To use symbols; to represent ideas symbolically.
- v. To make to agree in properties or qualities.
- v. To make representative of something; to regard or treat as symbolic.
- v. To represent by a symbol or symbols.
WordNet 3.0
- v. express indirectly by an image, form, or model; be a symbol
- v. represent or identify by using a symbol; use symbols
Etymologies
- From Middle French symboliser (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Neither glamorous enough to be New York nor glitzy enough to be Los Angeles, what San Antonio has come to symbolize is a basketball team that has never needed a marquee or spotlight to prosper.”
USATODAY.com - Spurs defeat Pistons 81-74 to win third NBA title since 1999
“If it does, I fear greatly for the future of my country, for the new Republican party that Bush appears to symbolize is a toxic combination of plutocracy, intolerance, and foreign misadventure.”
“Eggs symbolize fertility, and the Chinese word for shrimp sounds like the word for laughter and smile, which is great for a relationship," said Ming Tsai.”
“At a deeper level, however, the books are very different, and their titles symbolize the difference.”
“These days, gold-wrapped chocolate coins symbolize wealth.”
“European terms "colony," "dependence" and "empire," and the theory which these terms symbolize, have been true to the American System.”
"Colony,"--or "Free State"? "Dependence,"--or "Just Connection"? "Empire,"--or "Union"?
“His Kenyan father, early schooling in Indonesia, race and name symbolize for many a unique internationalist presidential profile, one that contrasts sharply with his predecessor.”
“They've done a lot of what Obama would "symbolize".”
“One of my pet peeves is the reckless and indiscriminate misuse of "symbolize": "Titus symbolizes a man bent on revenge.”
“GROSS: Was he self-conscious about how much his family and the "Ozzy and Harriet" show had come to kind of symbolize, like, suburban middle-class life in the 1950s?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘symbolize’.
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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loosen lessons
atmolyze, autolyze, cryptanalyze, photolyze, pyrolyze, realize, alize, cordialize, actualize, cyclize, artilize, aerosolize and 61 more...
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