solemnize
Other forms: solemnized; solemnizing; solemnizes
When you solemnize something, you make it serious or dignified. You might solemnize a meal by lighting candles and saying grace before you eat.
How much fun is it to get to pronounce a letter that is normally silent? You'll know when you wrap your tongue around this one, in which the n, normally silent in solemn, gets to introduce the suffix -ize. Even more fun is the fact that solemnize has a Greek suffix tacked onto a Latin root, sollemnis, or "formal, ceremonial, traditional." But we shouldn't be having so much fun with a verb whose meaning is "perform with dignity or gravity."
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observe or perform with dignity or gravity
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perform (the wedding ceremony) with proper ceremonies
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make solemn and grave
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Vocabulary lists containing solemnize
In this short story, a king sets up an unusual judicial process to determine the guilt or innocence of accused criminals. When her beloved faces this trial, the princess must decide whether to help him or send him to his death. Read the complete text here.
This novel tells the story of Thomas Gradgrind and his two children as they face social change in 19th-century England. Read the full text here.
In this comedy, various exiles — including Duke Senior, his daughter Rosalind, her cousin Celia, a nobleman named Orlando, and a fool — flee to the forest Arden.