mythifying
Turning into legend
Mythifying is turning something into myth—elevating a person, event, or idea to legendary status, often at the expense of factual accuracy.
The process typically involves romanticizing, simplifying, or imbuing subjects with symbolic meaning: Hollywood has spent decades mythifying the American West.
It can be deliberate or gradual, conscious or cultural.
Exceptionally brave and noble
- epicImpressively grand in scope
- godlikeResembling a deity
- immortalCannot die
- sagaExtended heroic narrative
titanic · demigod · larger-than-life · fabled · storied · renowned · illustrious · celebrated
Traditional oral narratives
- oral traditionCulture passed by speech
- heritageInherited cultural legacy
- loreTraditional knowledge transmitted orally
- customsTraditional practices or import taxes
superstitions · proverbs · ballads · folk heroes · trickster · ancestral · ethnographic · cultural narrative
Rhetorical extreme exaggeration
- embellishmentDecorative addition or exaggeration
- amplificationIncrease in intensity
- overstatementClaim beyond the facts
- inflationSustained price level increase
distortion · dramatization · magnification · tall tale · stretching · puffery · grandiosity · sensationalism
Elevating praise or worship
- venerationProfound admiring respect
- romanticizationPortraying as more appealing
- hero-worshipUncritical excessive admiration
- lionizationTreating as a celebrity
hagiography · reverence · adulation · idolization · elevation · sanctification · deification · apotheosis
Inventor of legends
- mythosBody of foundational legends
- cosmogonyStudy of universal origins
- etiologyScience of disease origins
- genesisPoint of creation
pantheon · origin story · world-building · narrative · archetype · symbolism · collective unconscious · primordial
heroic
Exceptionally brave and noble
saga · titanic · demigod · larger-than-life · fabled · storied · renowned · illustrious · celebrated · timeless
folktales
Traditional oral narratives
- oral traditionCulture passed by speech
- heritageInherited cultural legacy
- loreTraditional knowledge transmitted orally
customs · superstitions · proverbs · ballads · folk heroes · trickster · ancestral · ethnographic · cultural narrative · legend
hyperbole
Rhetorical extreme exaggeration
- embellishmentDecorative addition or exaggeration
- amplificationIncrease in intensity
- overstatementClaim beyond the facts
inflation · distortion · dramatization · magnification · tall tale · stretching · puffery · grandiosity · sensationalism · spin
glorification
Elevating praise or worship
- venerationProfound admiring respect
- romanticizationPortraying as more appealing
- hero-worshipUncritical excessive admiration
lionization · hagiography · reverence · adulation · idolization · elevation · sanctification · deification · apotheosis · beatification
mythmaker
Inventor of legends
- mythosBody of foundational legends
- cosmogonyStudy of universal origins
- etiologyScience of disease origins
genesis · pantheon · origin story · world-building · narrative · archetype · symbolism · collective unconscious · primordial · sacred narrative
mythifyingdemystifying
Explaining something seemingly complex
debunking · exposing · revealing · clarifying · explaining
mythifyinghumanizing
Making more relatable
deglamorizing · denigrating · trivializing · belittling · diminishing
mythifyingdemystifying
Explaining something seemingly complex
debunking · exposing · fact-checking · historicizing · documenting
myth, mythical, mythic, mythology, mythological, demystify, mythologist, mythologize, demystified