To dramatize something means to present it in an exciting, emotional, or exaggerated way that makes it feel more intense than it really is. When your little brother trips over his shoelace and acts like he's suffered a terrible injury, complete with groaning and clutching his ankle, he's dramatizing the situation. The scrape might be tiny, but he's turning it into a performance worthy of a movie scene.

When writers dramatize a true story for television, they turn real events into scenes with dialogue, music, and camera angles that make viewers feel the tension and emotion. A historical novel might dramatize the life of Abraham Lincoln, imagining conversations and feelings we can't know for certain, but that bring the story to life.

Some people tend to dramatize everything, turning ordinary events into major productions. If you dramatize a minor disagreement with a friend, you might describe it as a huge fight when really it was just a brief misunderstanding.