realize
Pronunciation
  • (GA) IPA: /ˈɹi.ə.laɪz/
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈɹɪə.laɪz/
Verb

realize (realizes, present participle realizing; past and past participle realized)

  1. (formal, transitive) To make real; to convert from the imaginary or fictitious into reality; to bring into real existence
    Synonyms: accomplish, actualize, materialize
    • 1665, Joseph Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica
      We realize what Archimedes had only in hypothesis, weighting a single grain against the globe of earth.
    The objectives of the project were never fully realized.
  2. (transitive) To become aware of (a fact or situation, especially of something that has been true for a long time).
    • 2002, The Flaming Lips, Do You Realize??
      Do you realize that everyone you know someday will die?
    He realized that he had left his umbrella on the train.
    The defendant desperately yelled at her young daughter, frantic to make her realize what she had done.
  3. (transitive) To cause to seem real; to sense vividly or strongly; to make one's own in thought or experience.
    • 1859, Ferna Vale, Natalie; or, A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds
      Over the mind of the tourist, visiting the Old World for the first time,—countries where have transpired thrilling events recorded in history, what an immensity of thought and feeling sweeps! It was thus with Natalie; she could not realize that she was treading in the footsteps of royalty, who living in long past days, had held sway over this land, had looked upon this land of "merrie England" as their home.
    • 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, II:
      That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it.
    • 1881, Benjamin Jowett, Thucydides Translated into English
      Many coincidences […] soon begin to appear in them [Greek inscriptions] which realize ancient history to us.
    • 1996, Alan Brown, Audrey Hepburn's Neck
      Drawings appear fully realized in his mind's eye at a furious rate, before he even picks up his pencil.
  4. (transitive, business) To acquire as an actual possession; to obtain as the result of plans and efforts; to gain; to get
    • 18, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 1, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify ), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323 ↗:
    to realize large profits from a speculation
  5. (transitive, business, finance) To convert any kind of property into money, especially property representing investments, such as shares, bonds, etc.
    • 1855, Washington Irving, Wolfert's Roost
      Wary men took the alarm, and began to realize, a word now first brought into use to express the conversion of ideal property into something real.
    Profits from the investment can be realized at any time by selling the shares.
    By realizing the company's assets, the liquidator was able to return most of the shareholders' investments.
  6. (transitive, business, obsolete) To convert into real property; to make real estate of.
  7. (transitive, linguistics) To turn an abstract linguistic object into actual language, especially said of a phoneme's conversion into speech sound.
    The southern /v/ is realized as the voiced approximant [ʋ].
    • 2016, Martin Maiden, The Oxford Guide to the Romance Languages, Oxford University Press (ISBN 9780199677108), page 297:
      Many (probably most) speakers realize it as [ø] or [œ] in other contexts as well. In Midi French, schwa is realized more frequently than in northern varieties, including in word-final position, where it generally (but not always) corresponds to […]
Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • Italian: liquidare
  • Russian: реализо́вывать



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