memorialize

me·mo·ri·al·ize
M3E1M3O1R1I1A1L1I1Z10E1
/məˈmɔːɹi.əˌlaɪz/

verb

To provide a memorial for someone; to commemorate.

UncommonScrabble 24

Meanings

verbmemorialize (third-person singular simple present memorializes, present participle memorializing, simple past and past participle memorialized)

present singular third person memorializes · participle present memorializing · participle past memorialized · past memorialized · alternative memorialise

  1. BritishEnglishOxfordUStransitiveTo provide a memorial for someone; to commemorate.

    In this passage, Andromaque sees Astyanax only through the memorializing lens of his attribution to Hector, his status as "gage."

    2008, Roland Racevskis, Tragic Passages: Jean Racine's Art of the Threshold, page 85
    1 more example

    President Emmanuel Macron decided this summer that 46 years after her death, Baker would become only the sixth woman to be memorialised in the Panthéon in a ceremony on 30 November – the anniversary of the marriage to Jean Lion that allowed her to acquire French nationality.

    2021 November 28, Jon Henley, “Dancer, singer … spy: France’s Panthéon to honour Josephine Baker”, in The Guardian
  2. BritishEnglishOxfordUStransitivesocial mediaTo convert (someone’s profile) into a memorial site/page (e.g. on Facebook).

    Facebook says people with memorialized accounts do not appear in advertisements or birthday reminders on the site and are also excluded from the People You May Know list of friend suggestions.

    2015 May 20, J. D. Biersdorfer, “Unlike You, Your Facebook Account Can Be Immortal”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
  3. BritishEnglishOxfordUStransitivelawTo create a written record of a meeting or conversation.

    Most of the time, the National Security Council — the foreign policy arm of the White House — memorializes presidential phone or video calls with foreign heads of state on the so-called TNet system, the officials said.

    2019 October 1, Charlie Savage, Matthew Rosenberg and Adam Goldman, “The Extra-Secret White House Computer System, Explained”, in The New York Times
  4. BritishEnglishOxfordUSdatedtransitiveTo petition with a memorial, or statement of facts.

    Why, you'll—you'll ask till they tell you. Then you'll memorialize that Department (according to regular forms which you'll find out) for leave to memorialize this Department.

    1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC

Synonyms & antonyms

verbaddress in a memorial

verbbe or provide a memorial to a person or an event

Broader

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

Translations

German eine Denkschrift einreichen, eine Gedenkfeier abhalten (für jemand)
  • eine Denkschrift einreichento commemorate
  • eine Gedenkfeier abhalten (für jemand)to commemorate
Hungarian emléket állít, emlékoldallá alakít
  • emléket állítto commemorate
  • emlékoldallá alakítto convert (a profile) into a memorial site/page
Spanish conmemorar, memorializar
  • conmemorarto commemorate
  • memorializarto convert (a profile) into a memorial site/page
Ukrainian меморіалізува́ти
  • меморіалізува́ти (memorializuváty)to commemorate
Cite this entry
APA

memorialize. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/memorialize

MLA

“memorialize.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/memorialize. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “memorialize,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/memorialize.

Source: memorialize on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.