overrelativize

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verb

To relativize excessively.

Scrabble 29

Meanings

verboverrelativize (third-person singular simple present overrelativizes, present participle overrelativizing, simple past and past participle overrelativized)

present singular third person overrelativizes · participle present overrelativizing · participle past overrelativized · past overrelativized

  1. transitiveTo relativize excessively.

    Nor do I want to overrelativize things or establish some sort of spurious moral equivalence between us and them.

    2024, Mark Freeman, “The (Al)lure of Narrative: Information, Misinformation, and Disinformation in the Time of Coronavirus”, in Martin Dege, Irene Strasser, editors, Narrative in Crisis: Reflections from the Limits of Storytelling (Explorations in Narrative Psychology), New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 26
    2 more examples

    The discussion of ethnicity in anthropological and historical quarters has been dominated in recent years by a tendency to overrelativize the notion of ethnicity for precolonial Africa.

    1994, Stephan Bühnen, “In Quest of Susu”, in David Henige, editor, History in Africa: A Journal of Method, volume 21, Atlanta, Ga.: African Studies Association, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 21

    They believe that in emphasizing the autonomy of Christian thinking, postliberalism errs as Barth did in overrelativizing the faith.

    1996, David K. Clark, “Relativism, Fideism & the Promise of Postliberalism”, in Timothy R. Phillips, Dennis L. Okholm, editors, The Nature of Confession: Evangelicals & Postliberals in Conversation, Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, →ISBN, part III (Realism & Foundationalism), page 110

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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