To lionize someone means to treat them like a celebrity or hero, giving them lots of attention and admiration.

When a basketball player scores the winning shot in the championship game, fans might lionize her, asking for autographs and cheering whenever she walks by. When a new author writes a bestselling book, the media might lionize him with interviews and photo spreads. To lionize someone is to put them on a pedestal and celebrate them as if they're extraordinary.

The word often suggests going a bit overboard with the praise. There's a difference between respecting someone's accomplishments and lionizing them. If your class lionizes a student just because she's good at soccer, treating her like she can do no wrong, that's lionizing. If they simply appreciate her athletic skill while seeing her as a regular person, that's admiration.

Sometimes people get lionized for doing their jobs well, like when communities lionize teachers or firefighters. Other times, people get lionized for a single viral moment that might not deserve quite so much fuss. The key element is treating someone as larger than life, sometimes in a way that makes them uncomfortable or that overlooks their flaws.