Realize
Pronunciation
Alternative forms
- realise non-Oxford British spelling
Origin
Attested since 1610, from French réaliser, from Middle French real ("actual"), from Old French reel, from Latin realis, from res ("thing, event, deed, fact"); as if real + -ize.
Full definition of realize
Verb
- (transitive) To make real; to convert from the imaginary or fictitious into the actual; to bring into concrete existence; to accomplish.
- unknown date Joseph GlanvillWe 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.
- (transitive) To become aware of a fact or situation.
- 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 4, No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or.... And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.
- He realized that he had left his umbrella on the train.
- (transitive) To cause to seem real; to impress upon the mind as actual; to feel vividly or strongly; to make one's own in apprehension or experience.
- 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.
- unknown date, Benjamin Jowett.Many coincidences . . . soon begin to appear in them inscriptions which realize ancient history to us.
- unknown date, Sir William Hamilton, 9th BaronetWe can not realize it in thought, that the object . . . had really no being at any past moment.
- (transitive, business) To acquire as an actual possession; to obtain as the result of plans and efforts; to gain; to get
- unknown date MacaulayKnighthood was not beyond the reach of any man who could by diligent thrift realize a good estate.
- to realize large profits from a speculation
- (transitive, business, finance) To convert any kind of property into money, especially property representing investments, as shares, bonds, etc.
- unknown date Washington IrvingWary 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.
- (transitive, business, obsolete) To convert into real property; to make real estate of.
Synonyms
- (to convert to actuality) accomplish, actualize