sentimentalize

verb

sen·​ti·​men·​tal·​ize ˌsen-tə-ˈmen-tə-ˌlīz 

sentimentalized; sentimentalizing

intransitive verb

: to indulge in sentiment

transitive verb

: to look upon or imbue with sentiment

sentimentalization

ˌsen-tə-ˌmen-tə-lə-ˈzā-shən 

noun

Examples of sentimentalize in a Sentence

The movie sentimentalizes the past.

He does not sentimentalize in his biography.

Recent Examples on the Web

Loznitsa neither sentimentalizes nor mocks this impulse; for him, the human will to resist, to cling fast to integrity and courage in the face of a mounting totalitarian horror, is something as real, as undeniable, and therefore worth acknowledging, as the horror itself. —Justin Chang, New Yorker, 20 Mar. 2026

Will Swenson, the accomplished Broadway actor, offers an unusually sympathetic yet never sentimentalized Sweeney. —Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 3 Feb. 2026

On not a few occasions, Mr. Armani has been aimless, drifty or has fallen into the trap of sentimentalizing his own back pages. —Guy Trebay, New York Times, 21 June 2023

Waititi sees sentimentalizing a culture as limiting it. —Rebecca Keegan, The Hollywood Reporter, 31 May 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1788, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense

Rhymes for sentimentalize

• contextualize
• industrialize
• materialise
• materialize
• memorialize
• microenterprise
• overemphasize
• particularize
• revolutionise
• revolutionize
• actualize
• antagonize