Definition

1. Verb (transitive):
   • To make someone or something famous forever; to cause to be remembered throughout time: The primary meaning is to confer lasting fame or remembrance upon a person, event, or thing, ensuring they are not forgotten.
   • To be or serve as a memorial to someone or something; to commemorate: This meaning focuses on the act of preserving the memory of someone or something, often through a tangible object or enduring action.

Examples of Usage

• Verb: (The verses made the hero's bravery famous forever.) (That photograph preserved the memory of that joyful moment for all time.) (The monument serves as a lasting memorial to the soldiers.)

Advanced Usage

• "to be immortalized in something": To have one's memory preserved permanently within a specific medium (e.g., art, literature, history).
• Passive voice usage is very common: The subject is the person or thing being made famous.

Variants and Related Words

• Immortalization (noun): The act of immortalizing or the state of being immortalized.
• Immortal (adjective/noun): Living forever; not subject to death. As a noun, a being who lives forever, or a person of enduring fame.

Synonyms

• Perpetuate: To make something continue indefinitely.
• Commemorate: To serve as a memorial or reminder of; to honor the memory of.
• Memorialize: To preserve the memory of; often used similarly to the second definition of 'immortalize'.
• Eternalize: To make eternal or everlasting (less common).

Antonyms

• Obliterate: To remove all traces of; to destroy completely.
• Forget: To fail to remember.
• Efface: To erase or make indistinct.

Related Phrases and Constructions

• "Go down in history immortalized as...": To be remembered in history in a specific, famous way.
• "A name immortalized": Referring to a person whose name will never be forgotten.

Verb

1. make famous forever
   • This melody immortalized its composer
2. be or provide a memorial to a person or an event
   • This sculpture commemorates the victims of the concentration camps
   • We memorialized the Dead