Definition of "syncretize" []

• To reconcile and unite (differing religious beliefs, for example), especially with partial success or a heterogeneous result. (verb-transitive)
• To combine differing elements or beliefs, especially with partial success or a heterogeneous result. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Along with George Romero's zombies and some of the folk tales and ghost stories that syncretize Irish immigrant and other voluntary immigrant, African and American Indian traditions, Lovecraft is the site of one of the few peculiarly American fantasies."
• "But I agree also with Jeff and the writer of this piece that the artificiality of “genre” versus “literary” needs to be broken down, and the way that works of art borrow from, syncretize, and rework genres needs more acknowledgement."
• "This concept ignores that to maintain absolute cultural integrity, cultures must be isolated from one another, because cultures inevitably syncretize when they come into contact."