valorize

verb

val·​o·​rize ˈva-lə-ˌrīz How to pronounce valorize (audio)
valorized; valorizing

transitive verb

1
: to enhance or try to enhance the price, value, or status of by organized and usually governmental action
using subsidies to valorize coffee
2
: to assign value or merit to : validate
valorization noun

Examples of valorize in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web This valorizes and increases our expertise with every client. Sheraz Ahmed, Forbes, 12 Feb. 2024 Her downbeat side has been too much stressed, maybe due to a general tendency among writers to valorize the darker byways of modernism. Elizabeth Barber, Harper's Magazine, 2 Feb. 2024 There are faintly fascistic undertones in the form Calvin Klein valorizes. Soraya Roberts, New York Times, 20 Jan. 2024 Gypsy Rose Blanchard is far from the first criminal, alleged or otherwise, to be valorized as a folk hero on the internet. Ej Dickson, Rolling Stone, 6 Jan. 2024 But to indulge in the lavish fantasy world Drake inhabits is to valorize the history and come up that preceded it. Dylan Green, Vulture, 26 July 2023 Where therapy leads to self-knowledge, and religion offers grace, motivation valorizes success. Tad Friend, The New Yorker, 4 Dec. 2023 In a process now familiar, it was transformed, not by real-estate speculation—at the start, bankers and developers wanted no part of these buildings—but by the arrival of white artists and idealistic leftists who valorized integration. Jonathan Lethem, The New Yorker, 21 Aug. 2023 As his literary criticism coalesced around lifelong friends and boyhood enthusiasms, his romanticism became a way of valorizing his own efforts as a liberal interventionist and militant atheist, and thus hard to distinguish from egotism. Christian Lorentzen, Harper's Magazine, 1 July 2022

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'valorize.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

back-formation from valorization, borrowed from Portuguese valorizacão, from valorizar "to enhance the value of" (from valor "value, worth"—going back to early Medieval Latin—+ -izar -ize) + -acão -ation — more at valor

First Known Use

circa 1906, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of valorize was circa 1906

Dictionary Entries Near valorize

Cite this Entry

“Valorize.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/valorize. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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