edify

verb ed·i·fy \ ˈe-də-ˌfī \

|Updated on: 3 Jun 2018

Examples: edify in a Sentence

Editor's Note: edify Has Latin Roots

Definition of edify

edified; edifying

transitive verb

1 : to instruct and improve especially in moral and religious knowledge : uplift; also : enlighten, inform

2 archaic

a : build

b : establish

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edify was our Word of the Day on 08/04/2016. Hear the podcast!

Examples of edify in a Sentence

These books will both entertain and edify readers.
a family-oriented show that tried to edify the television audience as well as entertain it

Recent Examples of edify from the Web

At a time when Britain is fighting rising Islamophobia, the outpouring of affection for an Egyptian-national superstar who is proud and public about his Muslim faith has been edifying.

— grant wahl, SI.com, "After Remarkable Rise, Mohamed Salah Shoulders Egypt's World Cup Hopes," 29 May 2018
Architecture to me is successful when the community is empowered by it, is edified by it, and is elevated by it.

— steven litt, cleveland.com, "Q&A with David Adjaye, designer of Smithsonian's African American museum," 13 May 2018
Take, as an edifying out-of-town example, the Atlantic Casino Hilton Hotel, built in 1985.

— yvonne abraham, BostonGlobe.com, "The Wynn mess, and the Mass. Gaming Commission’s big problem," 4 Apr. 2018
The problem is, the debate usually devolves into a facile back and forth that edifies no one.

— paul daugherty, Cincinnati.com, "Don't bother Doc. He's mock-drafting the 2018 NFL Draft. Pay attention, mobsters.," 21 Mar. 2018
And the thought of the administration’s settling for second best out of expediency, or vamping indefinitely until Maestro Right should miraculously appear, wasn’t edifying.

— john von rhein, chicagotribune.com, "Muti re-ups at CSO through 2022, announces a 2018-19 season honoring Armistice centennial," 30 Jan. 2018
The past several weeks haven’t been particularly edifying for the health of American culture.

— the editorial board, WSJ, "Our Dumbed-Down Culture," 13 Oct. 2017
Reality agreed to date her high-school boyfriend, Carlos, on certain conditions intended to improve and to edify.

— kerry howley, Daily Intelligencer, "‘The World’s Biggest Terrorist Has a Pikachu Bedspread’," 22 Dec. 2017
The distillery tour was edifying, the country beautiful, the double-oaked bourbon like drinking an alcoholic waffle.

— paul daugherty, Cincinnati.com, "Doc's TML: The NFL is never as it seems," 9 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'edify.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

edify Has Latin Roots

The Latin noun aedes, meaning "house" or "temple," is the root of aedificare, a verb meaning "to erect a house." Generations of speakers built on that meaning, and by the Late Latin period, the verb had gained the figurative sense of "to instruct or improve spiritually." The word eventually passed through Anglo-French before Middle English speakers adopted it as edify during the 14th century. Two of its early meanings, "to build" and "to establish," are now considered archaic; the only current sense of edify is essentially the same as that figurative meaning in Late Latin, "to instruct and improve in moral and religious knowledge."

Origin and Etymology of edify

Middle English, from Anglo-French edifier, from Late Latin & Latin; Late Latin aedificare to instruct or improve spiritually, from Latin, to erect a house, from aedes temple, house; akin to Old English ād funeral pyre, Latin aestas summer

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

in the meaning defined at sense 2

See Words from the same year