crystallize
/ˈkɹɪstəlaɪz/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.35 in modern English
25
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "I crystallized the copper sulfate by slowly cooling a saturated solution."
- "The copper sulphate crystallized from solution."
- "After some thought, I crystallized my ideas for the paper."
- "Two events from the past week help crystallize this strange, contradictory moment for the U.S. economy."
- "My ideas crystallized overnight."
- "The situation did crystallize, if painfully, under the stars, and by morning each knew what he must confess."
Etymology
From crystal + -ize. The double l reflects the classical stem found in its etyma, Latin crystallus and Ancient Greek κρύσταλλος (krústallos), rather than the simplified spelling of the English base noun. Compare Hellenistic Greek κρυσταλλίζειν (krustallízein, “to shine like crystal”), post‐classical Latin crystallizare (“to change into crystal”), and French cristalliser.
Origin
- Source language: Latin