Meaning & use
italicize
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To print or type words in slanted letters, often to show emphasis or the title of a book.
Grammar: Takes an object: italicize the title.
Patterns
- italicize something
- italicize something for emphasis
Italicize the titles of books in your essay.
She italicized the key word to make it stand out.
Foreign words in the text are italicized.
verbtransitivecomputing
To switch a piece of text in a computer program to a slanted style.
Grammar: Used in word-processing: select the text and italicize it.
Patterns
- italicize text
- italicize a selection
Select the heading and click here to italicize it.
The editor italicized every quotation by mistake.
You can italicize a word with a keyboard shortcut.
Word forms
| third person singular | italicizes |
|---|---|
| past tense | italicized |
| past participle | italicized |
| -ing form | italicizing |
Common combinations
- italicize a title
- Remember to italicize the title of the film.
- italicize for emphasis
- Don't italicize for emphasis too often.
- italicize foreign words
- The style guide says to italicize foreign words.
- italicize the text
- Select and italicize the text in the footnote.
- italicized word
- Each italicized word is defined in the glossary.
Synonyms and how they differ
- emphasize
- Emphasize means to give special importance by any means, while italicize refers only to slanted type.
- slant
- Slant can mean to tilt something in general, but it does not refer to type styling the way italicize does.
- highlight
- Highlight usually means marking with color or a bright mark, and it differs from changing the letter shape.
- stress
- Stress can mean to give vocal or written weight to a word, but it does not name a typeface.
Word family
- italic adjective
- in slanted type
- italics noun
- slanted letters, used for emphasis or titles
- italicization noun
- the act of setting text in italics
- italicized adjective
- printed or written in slanted letters
Commonly confused: italicize or italicise? italicize or underline?
italicize vs italicise
Italicise is the British spelling of the same word. Use italicize in American English.
italicize vs underline
Underline puts a line below the text, while italicize slants the letters.
Practice
According to the style guide, you should ___ the titles of novels but put short story titles in quotation marks.
Choose one answer.
Novel titles are set in slanted type, which is italicizing. Underlining is an older handwritten substitute, and the other options change a different feature.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “italicize”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.