Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To adopt Greek ways and speech; become Greek.
  • intransitive verb To make Greek in character, culture, or civilization.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make Hellenic or Hellenistic; cause to conform to Greek standards in any particular.
  • To conform to Greek standards or usages.
  • To use the Greek language.
  • To exhibit a tendency to Hellenism; cultivate Hellenism as an ideal of thinking and conduct. See Hellenism, 2.
  • Also spelled Hellenise.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To use the Greek language; to play the Greek; to Grecize.
  • transitive verb To give a Greek form or character to; to Grecize.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To use the language and culture of the ancient Greeks, to become Hellenistic.
  • verb To make or become Greek in character, language, culture, or civilization.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek Ἑλληνίζω (Hellēnizō, "to speak Greek, to make Greek, to become Greek"), from Ἕλλην (Hellēn, "Greek").

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Examples

  • In fact, they ran into a number of conflicts during their attempts to 'Hellenize' everyone.

    Signs of the Times 2010

  • Antiochus IV Epiphanes, after that king had attempted to "Hellenize" the inhabitants by, among other things, sacrificing a pig inside the Temple.

    CreationWiki - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • The super committee should write a good plan now if it can do so, but it should not take a bad deal that could hurt the economy and further Hellenize America's debt crisis.

    The Budget Sequester's Silver Lining Phil Gramm 2011

  • By this view, the ethnic homogenization of northern Greece – which started with the Balkan wars at the beginning of the last century and culminated in the post-World War II settlement in the region – was intended to Hellenize the Slav populations of Northern Greece.

    Balkan Neighbors Takis Michas 2008

  • More than twenty-one centuries ago, the Holy Land was ruled by the Seleucids Syrian-Greeks, who sought to forcefully Hellenize the people of Israel.

    Archive 2006-12-01 MaksimSmelchak 2006

  • More than twenty-one centuries ago, the Holy Land was ruled by the Seleucids Syrian-Greeks, who sought to forcefully Hellenize the people of Israel.

    GAMING NEWS: Ancients Wargaming, Channukah & A Little Fantasy! MaksimSmelchak 2006

  • Tigranes desperately wanted to be the civilized ruler of a Hellenized kingdom-and what better way to Hellenize it than to implant colonies of Greek speakers within its borders?

    Fortune's Favorites McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1993

  • In the palace of the Caesars Josephus became a reputable Greco-Roman chronicler, deliberately accommodating himself to the tastes of the conquerors of his people, and deliberately seeking, as Renan said, “to Hellenize his compatriots,” i.e. to describe them from a Hellenized point of view.

    Josephus Bentwich, Norman 1914

  • The patriarch was accused of anti - national sentiments, of trying to Hellenize the Russian Church, of corrupting the old faith.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 11: New Mexico-Philip 1840-1916 1913

  • Hellenize a little,” to “turn the free stream of our thought” on the Liberal policy of the moment; and to “see how this is related to the intelligible law of human life, and to national well-being and happiness.”

    Matthew Arnold Russell, G W E 1904

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