as in idealizes
to represent or think of as better than reality would warrant
he romanticized what life in a small town would be like, only to be later disappointed when reality intruded
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Recent Examples of romanticizes
Stamos quickly romanticizes the soldier’s isolation—his freedom from social expectations—and begins to dream of defecting.
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Rachel Vorona Cote, The Atlantic, 5 Jan. 2026
As Bella and Edward become closer, our young heroine not only romanticizes the vampire's ethereal good looks, but also the dominance and constant surveillance of his courtship.
—USA Today, 10 Oct. 2025
An onlooker who romanticizes historical figures as projections of her most idealized self.
—Bianca Davino, Refinery29, 7 Oct. 2025
In the lyrics, Swift romanticizes the little things in a relationship.
—Daniela Avila, People.com, 27 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for romanticizes
Verb
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Gen Z, in particular, has moved away from the hustle-and-grind culture of the 2000s and early 2010s and instead idealizes wellness, leisure and affluence without overt labor.—
Verb
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There has been much discussion about whether the genre glamorizes or interrogates female pain, or a little of both, or whether books by and about women with feelings that are important enough to be written about needs a label at all.—
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Social media often glamorizes pregnancy, but Llamas didn’t want to shy away from the complications.—
Verb
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With her crude French and slightly out-of-place mannerisms, Patricia is the young, beautiful American expatriate drawn to this wannabe gangster who idolizes Humphrey Bogart and yet seems so quintessentially French.—
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The action then jumps seventeen years into the future, where Morgan and Chris’s daughter, Clara (Mckenna Grace), is now a teen-ager who resents her mom’s protectiveness and idolizes her freewheeling aunt.—
Cite this Entry
“Romanticizes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/romanticizes. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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