as in to popularize
to use so much as to make less appealing
the composer's masterpiece has been hopelessly vulgarized by its use in countless TV commercials
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of vulgarize
His versions were full-blooded, with lush strings and reasonably large orchestras — and, purists alleged — vulgarizing distortions.
—
BostonGlobe.com, 28 Oct. 2019
Ever since his rise to power, Trump has served as a vulgarizing agent.
—Leon Neyfakh, Slate Magazine, 2 June 2017
BostonGlobe.com, 28 Oct. 2019
Ever since his rise to power, Trump has served as a vulgarizing agent.
—Leon Neyfakh, Slate Magazine, 2 June 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for vulgarize
Verb
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In the late 1980s while working as anchor for KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, Knapp rose to fame helping popularize the claims of UFO-lore stalwarts Bob Lazar and John Lear.—
Brett Tingley,
Space.com,
8 Sep. 2025
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The news highlights a movement to popularize a gesture to signal distress to passersby.—
Phaedra Trethan,
USA Today,
4 Sep. 2025
Verb
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For decades, the profession has been stereotyped as a world of calculators and spreadsheets, quietly humming in the background of business.—
Jason Ma,
Fortune,
7 Sep. 2025
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But while working mom and trad wife stereotypes reign online and in popular culture, many moms fall somewhere in between those two tropes.—
Madeline Mitchell,
USA Today,
31 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Annabelle has been in so many movies now, to the point of being overused (the real doll has even been suspected of paranormal activity recently).—
Dani Di Placido,
Forbes.com,
10 Sep. 2025
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The redemption story is overused in sports, but Anisimova coming back from a double-bagel Wimbledon final defeat against Iga Świątek to beat the same player a couple of months later was extraordinary.—
The Athletic Tennis Staff,
New York Times,
8 Sep. 2025
Verb
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United’s decade-plus of footballing dysfunction owes a partial debt to hiring processes that can make sense in the moment, but leave head coaches overexposed.—
Carl Anka,
New York Times,
5 Sep. 2025
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If most of your liabilities reprice simultaneously, you’re overexposed.—
Meelan Gupta,
Forbes.com,
27 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Too often, developments of this size that pop up on virgin ground get lost to boring cookie-cutter street scaping and architecture.—
The Denver Post Editorial Board,
Denver Post,
10 Sep. 2025
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The approach is complemented by heavy use of the Estevez brothers’ childhood Super 8 movies, genre-bending DIY productions that Charlie notes often bore similarities to the movies their father was making at the time.—
Daniel Fienberg,
HollywoodReporter,
10 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Vulgarize.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/vulgarize. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.
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