Dictionary

memorialize en · VERB

Pronunciation

• mə-môr′ē-ə-līz′
• /məˈmɔːɹi.əˌlaɪz/
• (US) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English memorial Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor. Late Latin -izōder. Middle French -iserbor. Middle English -isen English -ize English memorialize From memorial + -ize.

Meanings

1. (British, English, Oxford, US, transitive) To provide a memorial for someone; to commemorate.
   • 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:
   • 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:
2. (British, English, Oxford, US, qualifier:social media, transitive) To 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. (British, English, Oxford, US, transitive) To 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. (British, English, Oxford, US, dated, transitive) To 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:

Forms

Deriveds

memorializer · rememorialize · memorializable · memorialization

Translations (7)

hu emlékoldallá alakít (to convert (a profile) into a memorial site/page) · de eine Gedenkfeier abhalten (für jemand) (to commemorate) · es memorializar (to convert (a profile) into a memorial site/page) · es conmemorar (to commemorate) · hu emléket állít (to commemorate) · uk меморіалізува́ти (to commemorate) · de eine Denkschrift einreichen (to commemorate)