realize

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to: navigation, search

Contents

English [edit]

Alternative forms [edit]

Etymology [edit]

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.

Pronunciation [edit]

  • Audio (US)
    		(file)

Verb [edit]

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

  1. (transitive) To make real; to convert from the imaginary or fictitious into the actual; to bring into concrete existence; to accomplish.
    The objectives of the project were never fully realized.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Joseph Glanvill
      We realize what Archimedes had only in hypothesis, weighting a single grain against the globe of earth.
  2. (transitive) To become aware of a fact or situation.
    He realized that he had left his umbrella on the train.
  3. (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.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Benjamin Jowett.
      Many coincidences . . . soon begin to appear in them [Greek inscriptions] which realize ancient history to us.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Sir William Hamilton
      We can not realize it in thought, that the object . . . had really no being at any past moment.
  4. (transitive, business) To acquire as an actual possession; to obtain as the result of plans and efforts; to gain; to get
    to realize large profits from a speculation.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Macaulay
      Knighthood was not beyond the reach of any man who could by diligent thrift realize a good estate.
  5. (transitive, business, finance) To convert any kind of property into money, especially property representing investments, as shares, bonds, etc.
    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.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Washington Irving
      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.
  6. (transitive, business, obsolete) To convert into real property; to make real estate of.

Synonyms [edit]

Related terms [edit]

Derived terms [edit]

Translations [edit]

to become aware of
to make real
to cause to seem real
to convert into real property
to acquire as an actual possession
to convert into actual money
to convert any kind of property into money

References [edit]

Portuguese [edit]

Verb [edit]

realize

  1. First-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of realizar
  2. Third-person singular (ele, ela, also used with tu and você?) present subjunctive of realizar
  3. Third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of realizar
  4. Third-person singular (você) negative imperative of realizar
Retrieved from "http://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=realize&oldid=20066239"