# realise

Pronunciation: UK say "REER-lyz" /ˈɹɪə.laɪz/; US say "REE-uh-lyz" /ˈɹi(.ə)ˌlaɪz/

## Verb

1. To become aware of or come to understand a fact or situation, often one that has been the case for some time.
   - Simple: To start to know or understand something that is true, often something true for a while.
   - _It was only halfway to the airport that we realised the passports were still on the kitchen table._
   - _Few people realise how much water it takes to grow the cotton for a single T-shirt._
2. To make something planned or imagined, such as a goal or an idea, actually happen or come into existence.
   - Simple: To make a plan, hope or idea really happen.
   - _The architect's original design was never fully realised because the money ran out._
   - _Winning the scholarship helped her realise a lifelong ambition to study medicine._
3. To develop fully as a person, achieving everything one's abilities make possible.
   - Simple: To become all that you are able to be as a person.
   - _Many people find they can only realise themselves through work they care about._
   - _Away from her family's expectations, she finally realised herself as a painter in her forties._
4. To turn an asset or property, especially an investment such as shares or bonds, into money or another easily used form, usually by selling it.
   - Simple: To sell things you own, like shares, so that you have money instead.
   - _The administrators will realise the firm's remaining assets to pay its creditors._
   - _To pay the inheritance tax, the family had to realise part of the estate, including two farms._
5. To obtain money or a profit through the sale of an asset or property, or through trade; with on, to profit from an investment or venture.
   - Simple: To make money or a profit by selling something you own, or from an investment.
   - _The family realised a large profit when they sold the farmland to a developer._
   - _Shareholders could realise a substantial gain if the takeover goes ahead._
6. Of an asset or property, to bring in a particular sum of money or interest when it is sold or invested.
   - Simple: To bring in a certain amount of money when sold or invested, said of things people own.
   - _The painting realised £2.3 million at auction, far above its estimate._
   - _With so few buyers about, the farmland may realise far less than the agent promised._
7. To make something seem real, either by depicting it realistically or by bringing it vividly before someone's mind.
   - Simple: To make something seem real, for example by showing it clearly.
   - _The novel realises the noise and crowding of a Victorian slum with startling force._
   - _Good stage design can realise a whole forest with little more than light and a few branches._
8. To feel or picture something so strongly and clearly that it seems real.
   - Simple: To imagine or feel something so clearly that it becomes real in your mind.

## Verb

9. To have actual, first-hand experience of something. *(obsolete, US)*
   - Simple: To really live through something and feel it for yourself.

## Other meanings

- (verb) To pronounce an abstract unit of a language's sound system, especially a phoneme, as a particular sound that speakers actually produce.
- (verb) To complete a musical work that was left unfinished or was never written out in full.
- (verb) To arrange a piece of music written for a single performer so that an orchestra can play it.
- (verb) Chiefly in Baroque music, to play the harmonies or accompaniment indicated by a figured bass.
- (verb) In mathematics, to produce a particular object from an abstract group or structure.

## Origin

Real plus the suffix -ise, perhaps through French réaliser: to make something real, or to turn something into cash or assets.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/realise (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).