Meaning & use
canonize
To officially declare a deceased person a saint, or more broadly, to treat someone or something as a widely accepted standard or ideal.
See it in a sentence
The Catholic Church canonized the nun decades after her death, following extensive review.
Critics eventually canonized the film as one of the greatest of its decade.
A note on using this word
The religious sense follows formal church procedure, while the figurative sense simply means to elevate to iconic status.
Words with a similar meaning
sanctifyglorify
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
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