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realize

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: realizē

English

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WOTD – 6 September 2024

Etymology

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PIE word
*reh₁ís

From real (adjective) +‎ -ize (suffix denoting the making of what is indicated by the word it is attached to), possibly modelled after French réaliser, Middle French réaliser (“to make real; to convert (something) into assets or cash”),[1] from real (“actual, real”) + -iser (suffix denoting the making of what is indicated by the word it is attached to). Real is derived from Old French reel, from Latin reālis (“actual, real”), from rēs (“deed; event; matter; thing”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *reh₁ís (“goods; wealth”)) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship).

Pronunciation

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Verb

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realize (third-person singular simple present realizes, present participle realizing, simple past and past participle realized) (American and Oxford British spelling)

  1. (transitive)
    1. (originally chiefly Canada, US)
      1. To become aware of or understand (a fact or situation, especially something which has been true for some time).
        He realized that he had left his umbrella on the train.
        She desperately yelled at her young daughter, frantic to make her realize what she had done.
        • 1819 June 23, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Wife”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number I, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, page 49:
          [S]he cannot realize the change we must undergo. She has no idea of poverty but in the abstract: she has only read of it in poetry, where it is allied to love.
        • 1825–1832, Algernon Charles Swinburne, “The Journal of Sir Walter Scott”, in Studies in Prose and Poetry, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 17:
          But Scott, unaccountable as it seems, evidently failed to realize how far superior is Clara Mowbray [in Saint Ronan's Well] to all his other heroines of the same rank or class.
        • [1849], “‘Woman, Why Weepest Thou?’”, in Memorials of Bertie’s Brother and Infant Sister. […], London: Ward and Co., […], →OCLC, page 79:
          Have faith in God! He shall dispose thy lot, / Nor weep for woe thou realisest not: / They shall precede thee to the better land, / And meet and greet thee on its joyful strand.
        • 1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “Death”, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume II, Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC, page 109:
          For so bight and placid was the farewell voyage of the little spirit [of a child], […] that it was impossible to realize that it was death that was approaching.
        • 1865, [Henry] Suso, “Light after Darkness”, in [anonymous], transl., Spiritual Voices from the Middle Ages. […], London: Joseph Masters, […], →OCLC, part V (Of the State of Grace), paragraph 97, pages 75–76:
          Utterly helpleſs, thou wert ſinking for ever, and realiſedſt not the fearfulneſs of thy poſition, for thus wert thou born and nurtured.
        • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 46:
          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.
        • 1898, Omar Khayyam, “Quatrains of Omar Khayyām (Ousely MS., 140, Bodleian Library, Oxford): Quatrain 81”, in Edward Heron-Allen, transl., The Ruba’iyat of Omar Khayyām: A Facsimile of the MS in the Bodleian Library […], London: H. S. Nichols, →OCLC, page 14:
          Praise be to God! thou realizest that wine / is a juice that frees the heart from a hundred pains.
        • 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, page 378, column 1:
          SHE wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realising that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.
        • 1916 January, Hugh Walpole, “The Forest”, in The Dark Forest, London: Martin Secker […], →OCLC, part II, page 245:
          I realized at once that indescribable quiver in the air of momentous events.
        • 1920, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “The Journey Across”, in The Lost Girl, London: Martin Secker […], →OCLC, page 325:
          And for the first time she realised what it was to escape from the smallish perfection of England, into the grander imperfection of a great continent.
        • 1952 March, R. K. Kirkland, “The Railways of Uxbridge”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 147:
          […] Uxbridge thought it could safely ignore the railway […]. Like many other towns which adopted similar tactics, Uxbridge soon realised its mistake.
        • 2000 June – 2002 April (date recorded), Wayne Coyne, Steven Drozd, Dave Fridmann, Michael Ivins (lyrics and music), “Do You Realize??”, in Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, performed by The Flaming Lips, Burbank, Calif.: Warner Brothers Records, published 16 July 2002, →OCLC:
          Do you realize that everyone you know someday will die?
        • 2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told [online version: ‘Killer robots’ pose threat to peace and should be banned, UN warned]”, in The Guardian Weekly‎[1], volume 188, number 26, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-04-11, page 6:
          In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.
        • 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My Weirdest and Wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 68:
          As the 1857 to Manchester Piccadilly rolls in, I scan the windows and realise there are plenty of spare seats, so I hop aboard. The train is a '221'+'220' combo to allow for social distancing – a luxury on an XC train as normally you're playing sardines, so I make the most of it.
      2. To sense (something) strongly or vividly as if real.
        • 1859, Ferna Vale [pseudonym; Emma V. Hallett], “We are Going Home”, in Natalie; or, A Gem among the Sea-weeds. […], Andover, Mass.: W[arren] F[ales] Draper, →OCLC, page 286:
          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.
        • 1891, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Science of Deduction”, in A Study in Scarlet. A Detective Story, 3rd edition, London, New York, N.Y.: Ward, Lock, Bowden, and Co., […], published 1892, →OCLC, part I (Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., […]), pages 19–20:
          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.
    2. To cause (something) to seem real; to make realistic; specifically, to present (something) clearly to the mind, a person, (archaic) oneself, etc., so that it seems real.
      Antonym: derealize
      • 1654, Richard Baxter, “Rich. Baxter’s Account Given to His Reverend Brother Mr T[homas] Blake of the Reasons of his Dissent from the Doctrine of His Exceptions in His Late Treatise of the Covenants. §. 73.”, in Rich. Baxter’s Apology against the Modest Exceptions of Mr. T[homas] Blake and the Digression of Mr. G[eorge] Kendall. […], London: […] A. M. for Thomas Underhill, […], and Francis Tyton […], →OCLC, pages 130–131:
        Its true that Faith may be ſaid, as you ſpeak, to Realize ſalvation to the Soul; that is, vvhen the Soul doubteth vvhether there be indeed ſuch a Glory and Salvation to be expected and enjoyed by Believers, as Chriſt hath promiſed, here Faith apprehendeth it as Real or Certain, and ſo reſolves the doubt.
      • 1684, [anonymous], “The Life of Mr. Henry Dorney”, in Henry Dorney, Divine Contemplations, and Spiritual Breathings of Mr. Henry Dorney: […], London: […] James Rawlins, for John Wright, […], →OCLC, pages 16–17:
        [T]rue Faith is ſuch as realizeth Things abſent, remote and future. That it is not the nearneſs of a thing makes it real; but Faith ſeeth a Thing to be real, though afar off; vvhen vve are apt to judge many times of the reality of things, becauſe they are near.
      • 1719, [Daniel Defoe], The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 4:
        [I]t vvas ſo vvarm in my Imagination, and ſo realiz'd to me, that to the Hour I ſavv them, I could not be perſuaded, but that it vvas or vvould be true; […]
      • a. 1733 (date written), Thomas Boston, “The Danger of Unworthy Communicating”, in An Illustration of the Doctrines of the Christian Religion, with Reference to Faith and Practice. […], 2nd edition, volume III, Edinburgh: […] Schaw and Pillans, for the Reverend Joseph Johnston, […], published 1796, →OCLC, paragraph 2, page 348:
        [F]aith realiſeth the ſufferings of Chriſt; it looks upon Chriſt as the common treaſury of all grace, as the principle of life, and root of holineſs.
      • 1753 (indicated as 1754), [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXXV. Miss Byron. In Continuation.”, in The History of Sir Charles Grandison. […], volume V, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by C. Hitch and L. Hawes, […], →OCLC, page 238:
        The terror they [apprehensions] gave me, ſeveral times avvakened me; but ſtill, as I cloſed my eyes, I fell into them again. VVhence, my dear, proceed theſe ideal vagaries, vvhich, for the time, realize pain or pleaſure to us, according to their hue or complexion, or rather according to our ovvn?
      • 1781, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Critic: Or A Tragedy Rehearsed […], London: […] T[homas] Becket, […], →OCLC, Act II, scene ii, page 64:
        PUFF. But take care, my dear Dangle, the morning gun is going to fire. [Cannon fires.] / DANGLE. VVell, that vvill have a fine effect. / PUFF. I think ſo, and helps to realize the ſcene.— […]
      • 1750 October 24 (Gregorian calendar), Samuel Johnson, “No. [60]. Saturday, October 13. 1750.”, in The Rambler, volume III, Edinburgh: [[…] Sands, Murray, and Cochran]; sold by W. Gordon, C. Wright, J. Yair, […], published 1750, →OCLC, pages 57–58:
        All joy or ſorrovv for the happineſs or calamities of others, is produced by an act of the imagination, that realiſes the event hovvever fictitious, or approximates it hovvever remote, by placing us for a time in the condition of him vvhoſe fortune vve comtemplate; […]
      • 1870, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Domestic Life”, in Society and Solitude. Twelve Chapters, Boston, Mass.: Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, pages 94–95:
        The child realizes to every man his own earliest remembrance, and so supplies a defect in our education, or enables us to live over the unconscious history with a sympathy so tender as to be almost personal experience.
      • 1881, B[enjamin] Jowett, “On Inscriptions of the Age of Thucydides […]”, in Thucydides Translated into English, volume II (Containing the Notes […]), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, page xiv:
        The broken form in which the older Greek inscriptions have been preserved to us, though impairing, is far from destroying their value. […] Many coincidences, slight as well as important, soon begin to appear in them which realize ancient history to us.
      • 1996, Alan Brown, Audrey Hepburn’s Neck […], New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 277:
        Drawings appear fully realized in his mind's eye at a furious rate, before he even picks up his pencil.
      • 2002, Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet‎[2]:
        Every action that realizes a dream or desire unrealizes it in reality.
      • 2015, József Zsolt Bernád, Juan Mauricio Torres, Ludwig Kunz, Gernot Alber, “Multiphoton states assisted entanglement purification of material qubits”, in arXiv‎[3]:
        We explore the theoretical possibilities of realizing a high-fidelity two-qubit quantum operation necessary for the purification protocol with the help of a postselective balanced homodyne photodetection.
    4. (chiefly passive voice, slightly formal) To convert (something imaginary or planned, as a goal or idea) into reality; to bring into real existence, to make real. [from early 17th c.]
      Synonyms: accomplish, actualize, materialize
      Antonym: disrealize
      Coordinate term: reify
      The objectives of the project were never fully realized.
      • 1640, Ezekias [i.e., Hezekiah] Woodward, “The Preface, Shewing the Necessitie and Worth of a Vertuous Education, and may Serve as an Introduction to Dutie”, in A Childes Patrimony. Laid out upon the Good Nurture, or Tilling over the Whole Man. […], London: […] I[ohn] L[egate] and are to be sold by Henry Overton, […], →OCLC, pages 44–45:
        The Apoſtle ſaith, That by Adam ſinne entred into the vvorld. It ſufficeth to knovv; That God, by juſt imputation, realizeth the infection into the vvhole race of Adam; in vvhom vve vvere as in a common Lumpe, and in his leaven ſovvred: […]
      • 1661, Joseph Glanvill, chapter III, in The Vanity of Dogmatizing: Or Confidence in Opinions. […], London: […] E. C[otes] for Henry Eversden […], →OCLC, page 22:
        [I]f vve defæcate the notion from materiality, […] it vvill be as hard to apprehend, as that an empty vviſh ſhould remove Mountains: a ſuppoſition vvhich if realized, vvould relieve Siſyphus.
      • 1665, Joseph Glanvill, chapter XVII, in Scepsis Scientifica: Or, Confest Ignorance, the Way to Science; […], London: […] E. C[otes] for Henry Eversden […], →OCLC, page 102:
        [W]e realize vvhat Archimedes had only in Hypotheſis; vveighing a ſingle grain againſt the Globe of Earth.
      • 1742, [Edward Young], “Night the Third. Narcissa. […]”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley, […], and T. Cooper, […], →OCLC, page 25:
        Rich Death, that realizes all my Cares, / Toils, Virtues, Hopes; vvithout it, a Chimera!
      • 1791, James Boswell, “[1763]”, in James Boswell, editor, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], volume I, London: […] Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, […], →OCLC, page 244:
        The mention of his gentleman led us to talk of the VVeſtern Iſlands of Scotland, to viſit vvhich he expreſſed a vviſh that then appeared to me a very romantick fancy, vvhich I little thought vvould be aftervvards realized.
      • 1790, “Appendix X”, in A New Collection of Commercial-letters for Use and Entertainment: Ein Lesebuch für diejenigen, weiche die englische Sprache in Hinsicht auf Kaufmännische Geschäfte erlernen wollen, mit grammatischen Anmerkungen, und einem erklährenden Wort- und Phrasen-Verzeichniss [A Reading Book for Those who Wish to learn the English Language with Regard to Commercial Transactions, with Grammatical Notes, and an Explanatory Word and Phrase Dictionary] (A New Collection of English Letters for Use and Entertainment; II), Nuremberg, Bavaria: C. Weigel und A. G. Schneider, page 179:
        […] I pleaſe myſelf vvith a viſionary anticipation of the future, vvhen my Charles vvill have finiſh'd his apprenticeſhip. […] I ſee him beloved and admired, by all; the honour and pattern of his juvenile contemporaries. O my ſon! hovv happy canſt thou make thy father! in vvhat an ecſtaſy vvilt thou transport him, if thou realizeſt this!
      • 1876, James Russell Lowell, “Dante”, in Among My Books. Second Series., Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 76:
        At this very moment when she had undergone her most sublimated allegorical evaporation, his instinct as poet, which never failed him, realized her into woman again in those scenes of almost unapproached pathos which make the climax of his Purgatorio.
    5. (reflexive) To achieve (one's) potential.
    6. (business, finance)
      1. To convert (an asset or property, especially investments such as bonds, shares, etc.) into a more easily usable form such as money, especially by selling the asset or property.
        By realizing the company’s assets, the liquidator was able to return most of the shareholders’ investments.
        Profits from the investment can be realized at any time by selling the shares.
      2. To acquire (money, a profit, etc.) by selling an asset or property, through trade, etc.; also (followed by on), to make (money or a profit) on an investment, a venture, etc.
        to realize large profits from a speculation
      3. Of an asset or property: to generate (a specific amount of money or interest) when invested or sold.
    7. (linguistics) To turn (an abstract linguistic object, especially a phoneme) into a speech sound actually used in a language.
      The southern /v/ is realized as the voiced approximant [ʋ].
      • 2016, John Charles Smith, “French and Northern Gallo-Romance”, in Adam Ledgeway, Martin Maiden, editors, The Oxford Guide to the Romance Languages (Oxford Linguistics; Oxford Guides to the World’s Languages), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, part III (Individual Structural Overviews), page 297, column 1:
        The phonetic realization of schwa varies; […] 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 etymological /ə/.
    8. (mathematics) To obtain an entity from (an abstract group or structure).
    9. (music)
      1. To arrange (a musical work written for a single performer) to be performed by an orchestra; to orchestrate.
      2. To complete (a musical work which is incomplete or not fully notated).
      3. Chiefly in Baroque music: to play an accompaniment, harmonies, etc., based on (a figured bass).
    10. (obsolete, US) To have an actual or real experience of (something).
  2. (intransitive)
    1. To become aware of or understand a fact or situation.
    2. To cause to seem real; to make realistic.
    3. (business, finance)
      1. To convert an asset or property into a more easily usable form such as money.
        • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, “A Pedigree and Other Family Matters”, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849, →OCLC, page 10:
          A lucky purchase which he had made of shares in a copper-mine added very considerably to his wealth, and he realised with great prudence while this mine was still at its full vogue.
        • 1855, Washington Irving, “[A Time of Unexampled Prosperity.] The Great Mississippi Bubble.”, in Wolfert’s Roost and Other Papers, […], New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam & Co., […], →OCLC, page 174:
          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.
      2. Followed by on or upon: to acquire money or a profit from the sale of an asset or property.
      3. (obsolete) With an adverb like badly or well: of an asset or property being sold: to generate little or a lot of money.
        The estate is expected to realize well as it comprises many valuable assets.

Conjugation

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Conjugation of realize
infinitive (to) realize
present tense past tense
1st-person singular realize realized
2nd-person singular realize, realizest† realized, realizedst†
3rd-person singular realizes, realizeth† realized
plural realize
subjunctive realize realized
imperative realize —
participles realizing realized

†Archaic or obsolete.

Alternative forms

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Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → Portuguese: realizar (“to realize, become aware of”) (semantic loan)

Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “realize, v.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2024; “realize, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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Mauritian Creole

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Etymology

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From French réaliser.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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realize (medial form realiz)

  1. to realize.
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Portuguese

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Verb

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realize

  1. inflection of realizar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
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