Pragmatise

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    Alternative form of pragmatize.; To make real.

    "He does not, as was formerly the fashion, pragmatise mythology, i.e. simply drop the supernatural elements, and take the residuum as history; nor, on the other hand, reject it altogether, as utterly useless for historical purposes; but having endeavoured to catch the traditional belief, the impregnating idea which is at work under the ever-changing forms of fable, he uses it with cautious, sagacity as a clue for tracing the course of primeval settlements, and recovering the lost thread of ethnological affinities."

  2. 2
    Alternative form of pragmatize.; To focus on the material or practical.

    "A Movement like ours, so apt to pragmatise, developed its policy in a practical way."

Example

More examples

"He does not, as was formerly the fashion, pragmatise mythology, i.e. simply drop the supernatural elements, and take the residuum as history; nor, on the other hand, reject it altogether, as utterly useless for historical purposes; but having endeavoured to catch the traditional belief, the impregnating idea which is at work under the ever-changing forms of fable, he uses it with cautious, sagacity as a clue for tracing the course of primeval settlements, and recovering the lost thread of ethnological affinities."

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.