mythologize
Turn into myth
To mythologize is to turn something into myth—to transform a person, event, or era into something legendary, often romanticized or exaggerated beyond historical reality.
People mythologize the Old West, founding fathers, or their own childhoods.
The word can be neutral or critical, suggesting distortion: Hollywood has mythologized the American frontier.
We tend to mythologize what we've lost.
Praise with great intensity
- idealizeRegard as flawless
- romanticizePortray as more appealing
- lionizeTreat as famous
- aggrandizeIncrease perceived power
embellish · venerate · apotheosize · elevate · ennoble · immortalize · canonize · celebrate
Recounting events aloud
- epicImpressively grand in scope
- sagaExtended heroic narrative
- taleSpoken or written narrative
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
parable · chronicle · mythos · legend · fable · archetype · quest · folklore
Create something new
- concoctInvent or devise
- embellishAdd decorative elements
- exaggerateOverstate beyond truth
- fictionalizeRender as invented narrative
distort · misrepresent · falsify · spin · tall-tale · apocryphal · mythmaker · fantasy
exalt
Praise with great intensity
- idealizeRegard as flawless
- romanticizePortray as more appealing
- lionizeTreat as famous
aggrandize · embellish · venerate · apotheosize · elevate · ennoble · immortalize · canonize · celebrate · magnify
storytelling
Recounting events aloud
allegory · parable · chronicle · mythos · legend · fable · archetype · quest · folklore · ballad
invent
Create something new
- concoctInvent or devise
- embellishAdd decorative elements
- exaggerateOverstate beyond truth
fictionalize · distort · misrepresent · falsify · spin · tall-tale · apocryphal · mythmaker · fantasy · whopper
pantheon
All gods of a religion
- deityWorshipped supernatural being
- cosmogonyStudy of universal origins
- tricksterCunning deceiver in myth
underworld · afterlife · ancestral · sacred · ritual · totem · shamanic · animism · dreamtime · folklore
titans
Dominant powerful figures
mythologizedemythologize
Strip away mythic status
document · historicize · chronicle · tell it like it is · deglamorize
mythologizedemythologize
Strip away mythic status
deglorify · demystify · humanize · cut down to size · deflate
- mythological taleSacred ancestral narrative
- mythological creaturesFantastical beings from folklore
- mythological figuresCharacters from sacred legends
- mythological characterBeing from ancient tales
- mythological beastsSupernatural animals from folklore
- mythological heroesCelebrated characters from ancient tales
mythological, mythologist, mythologies, mythologic, mythologized, mythologizing, mythologizes, mythologically, mythologization