# realize

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

## Verb

1. To recognize a fact or situation or grasp its meaning or importance, often after it has existed for some time.
   - Simple: To understand or become aware of a fact or situation, often one that has been true for a while.
   - _Halfway through the trip, they realized they'd left the tickets at home._
   - _It took years for him to realize how much his mentor had shaped his career._
2. To make something planned, hoped for or imagined actually happen or exist, such as a goal, a dream or one's potential.
   - Simple: To make something you planned or hoped for really happen.
   - _It took her twenty years of saving and planning to realize her dream of opening a small bakery._
   - _She hopes to realize her vision of affordable housing for the city._
3. To acquire money or a profit by selling an asset or property or through trade; also, to make money or a profit on an investment or venture.
   - Simple: To get money or profit by selling something or from a deal.
   - _The company realized substantial profits from the overseas sale._
   - _Early backers expect to realize a healthy return on the startup._
4. To convert an asset or property, especially an investment such as bonds or shares, into a more usable form such as money, usually by selling it.
   - Simple: To turn property or investments into cash, usually by selling them.
   - _The trustees decided to realize the estate's holdings before year-end._
   - _She realized her property portfolio to fund the new business._
5. (Of an asset or property) to be sold for, or bring in, a stated amount of money.
   - Simple: Of property or an investment: to be sold for, or bring in, a certain amount of money.
   - _The estate realized far more than the family had expected._
   - _The paintings were expected to realize well over a million dollars when they went under the hammer._
6. To make something seem real, especially by showing it clearly or realistically in art, film or writing.
   - Simple: To make something seem real, especially by showing or describing it clearly in art, film or writing.
   - _The director worked to realize the novel's bleak landscape on screen._
   - _Vivid prose realized the storm so well that readers felt the cold._
7. To sense or perceive something so strongly and vividly that it seems real.
   - Simple: To feel or picture something so strongly that it seems real.

## Verb

8. To experience something directly or feel it personally. *(obsolete, US)*
   - Simple: To really live through or feel something for yourself.

## Other meanings

- (verb) In linguistics, to produce an abstract unit such as a phoneme as an actual sound in speech.
- (verb) To complete a musical work that is unfinished or not fully notated.
- (verb) To arrange a musical work written for a single performer so that it can be played by an orchestra; to orchestrate.
- (verb) In music, especially of the Baroque period, to work out the harmonies or accompaniment indicated by a figured bass, in writing or performance.
- (verb) In mathematics, to produce a concrete instance of an abstract group or structure.

## Origin

Made in English by adding the suffix '-ize' (which means to make something) to the adjective 'real', possibly on the model of French and Middle French 'réaliser' ('to make real; to convert into assets or cash'). 'Real' itself came to English from Old French 'reel' and goes back through Latin 'reālis' ('actual, real') to 'rēs' ('deed, event, matter, thing'), and in the end to Proto-Indo-European '*reh₁ís' ('goods, wealth').

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