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Glite Dictionary
🆕 To modernize ⏳ To make simultaneous
to contemporize

to contemporize

1 7.4
Change an older work, idea, or event so it feels modern and important today
  • verb
  • /kənˈtɛmpəraɪz/
  • US
translation icon : modernizar
  • The director decided to contemporize the classic play to attract younger audiences.

Examples

  • For Burges, this is a process of "modernization" in which style "contemporizes" in moving from omniscience to free indirection.

    Academic text (2016)

  • I'm really excited to see how deeply people will reach to contemporize our film, far beyond how it deserves to be contemporized.

    Blog text (15)

  • Contemporizing to meet student interests.

    Academic text (2008)

  • I'm really excited to see how deeply people will reach to contemporize our film, far beyond how it deserves to be contemporized.

    Blog text (15)

  • Has she merely "contemporized" the fairy tale, or has she fundamentally changed it?

    Fiction book (2000)

  • To attract new readers, the author chose to contemporize his novel by setting it in the present day.

  • The museum plans to contemporize its exhibits to make them more relevant to younger visitors.

Synonyms

to modernize
vsto contemporize
51 4.0

To make something more up to date using new tools or ideas

focuses on making works feel relevant to present-day people rather than technical updates
to reimagine
vsto contemporize
9 4.7

Think of something in a new way

aims to make things feel relevant to present-day people rather than inventing new forms

Antonyms

to antiquate
9.5

To make something old and no longer useful

How Contemporary

to overhaul
35 4.6
to modernize
51 4.0
to contemporize
  • US
1 7.4
to update
451 2.8

Surface Forms

contemporize infinitive
contemporized past
contemporized past participle
contemporizing present participle
contemporizes third person singular

Morphology

contemporize = contemporary (transparent) = contemporary + ize

Formed by adding the productive verbalizer '-ize' to 'contemporary', yielding 'make or render contemporary/modern', which is directly inferable.

Etymology

Contemporize comes from con- 'together' and tempus 'time', the same root as contemporary, so a helpful way to remember it is 'bring into the present'. That's why to contemporize a work or idea is to make it feel modern and relevant today.