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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

euhemerize.

To invent a plausible but fanciful historical origin for something in order to rationalize mythology and legends.

10 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/juˈhiməˌɹaɪz/General-American/juːˈhiːməˌɹaɪz/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To invent a plausible but fanciful historical origin for something in order to rationalize mythology and legends.

    ambitransitive · derogatory
    Confucian scholars frequently euhemerized the myths used to explain religious rituals to the public.
  2. To create mythology and legends from ancient historical figures and events.

    ambitransitive
    The Yellow Emperor was perhaps euhemerized from a prehistoric tribal leader.
Where this word comes from

From euhemerism + -ize, ultimately from Latin Euhēmerus, from Ancient Greek Εὐήμερος (Euḗmeros), an ancient Greek Sicilian Skeptic who proposed most or all mythology derived from historical figures and natural events which received supernatural characteristics only through retelling.

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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.