maximize
Formsmaximizes, maximizing, maximized
UK spellingmaximise
- 1To increase something to the greatest amount or extent possible.
The company restructured its operations to maximize revenue.
Athletes maximize their performance through careful training and recovery.
Similarboost, increase, optimize, raise, enhance
Oppositeminimize
Note
Built from Latin maximus, "greatest," with the English verb-forming suffix -ize, the word turns a superlative into an action. It is transitive, so something is always being maximized, and its usual objects are measurable or aspirational: performance, revenue, potential. Use it when the aim is the ceiling itself. Simply increasing something is not maximizing it.
- 2To expand a window so that it fills the main display area.
Double-click the title bar to maximize the document window.
He maximized the spreadsheet to see all the columns at once.
Oppositeminimize
Note
Interface vocabulary taken straight from the general "largest possible" sense: the window grows to the biggest size the screen allows. Its object is a window or something shown in one, such as a document or a spreadsheet. A maximized window fills the main display area and hides the desktop, but it is not full-screen mode, where the title bar and taskbar usually disappear as well.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from Latin "maximus" (greatest) combined with the suffix "-ize."