realize
/ˈɹi(.ə)ˌlaɪz/
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.83 in modern English
Meaning
verb
To become aware of, understand, or appreciate (a fact or situation, especially something which has been true for some time).
American usage; Transitive verb
verb
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.
Transitive verb
verb
To convert (something imaginary or planned, as a goal or idea) into reality; to bring into real existence, to make real.
Transitive verb
verb
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.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "[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."
- "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."
- "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."
- "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."
Etymology
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɹi(.ə)ˌlaɪz/
- British English: /ˈɹɪə.laɪz/
Usage
- American usage
- Transitive verb
- Obsolete
- Intransitive verb