canonize.
To declare (a deceased person) as a saint, and enter them into the canon of saints.
Meaning & usage
To declare (a deceased person) as a saint, and enter them into the canon of saints.
Thomas Becket was canonized in 1173.
To regard as a saint; to glorify, to exalt to the highest honour.
To formally declare (a piece of religious writing) to be part of the biblical canon.
To regard (an artistic or written work or its creator) as one of a group that are representative of a particular field.
Especially of a church: to give official approval to; to authorize, to sanction.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Ancient Greek κανών (kanṓn)bor. Latin canōn Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor. Latin -izō Medieval Latin canōnizōbor. Old French canonisierbor. Middle English canonizen English canonize From Late Middle English canonizen (“to declare as a saint; to appoint to an ecclesiastical office”), from Old French canonisier (modern French canoniser (“to canonize”)), or from its etymon Medieval Latin, Late Latin canōnizāre, the present active infinitive of Latin canōnizō (“to recognize as a saint, canonize; to declare as authoritative or official”), from Latin canōn (“measuring line; (figurative) precept, rule, canon; authorized catalogue”) + -izō (suffix forming verbs). The English word is analysable as canon (“general principle, rule; authoritative group of works; catalogue of saints canonized in the Roman Catholic Church”) + -ize.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.