customize
Americanverb (used with object)
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customizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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customized,
past participle, past
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customizing
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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customizationnoun
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customizernoun
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customizableadjective
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noncustomizedadjective
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semicustomizedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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customizesimple
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customizessimple
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have customizedperfect
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has customizedperfect
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am customizingprogressive
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are customizingprogressive
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is customizingprogressive
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have been customizingperfect progressive
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has been customizingperfect progressive
Past
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customizedsimple
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had customizedperfect
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was customizingprogressive
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were customizingprogressive
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had been customizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of customize
Explanation
To customize something is to make it exactly how you want it. If you put stickers all over your plain old notebook, you customize it. If you see the word customer in customize, you’re onto something — to customize is to make something to a customer’s specifications. When clothes are customized — or tailored — they’re made with you in mind, specifically. A customized suit should fit perfectly. If you customize your car, it could be bright pink with eyelashes on the headlights. Or not.
Vocabulary lists containing customize
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Still, these funds may work better as a starting point until retirement investors are ready to customize their plans to meet their financial needs and goals.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026
Like most of China's offerings, it costs less and uses source code that programmers can customize.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
Buyers will start with a basic truck without power windows or even paint and can then customize it however they like.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026
As part of their joint work, Abridge will use its de-identified clinical data to further train and customize the Nemotron models, said Dr. Shiv Rao, the startup’s co-founder and chief executive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
“The default setting is typically ‘help,’ but you can customize as the situation allows.”
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
While Apple customizes many components inside iPhones, Khan said, “there isn’t a lot of customization” for memory, alluding to the possibility that commodity Chinese memory chips could be used.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
Davis customizes treatment plans for each person, and individual sessions are $300 a visit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2025
This new testing method further advances precision medicine, which is a patient care approach that customizes treatments specifically for a person's genetics, environment and lifestyle.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 18, 2024
Kestenbaum uses Ikea for playrooms a lot, but customizes the pieces so the room doesn’t read Ikea.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 31, 2023
The plant sometimes customizes guns with scratches and blemishes by painting American flags on them, she said.
From Washington Post
To construct the device, the researchers added silver nanoparticles to a layer of customized DNA sequences -- specially designed to be of certain compositions and lengths -- that was integrated with thin films of perovskite.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 17, 2026
At the exclusive terminal for the rich and the famous at Los Angeles International Airport, passengers are greeted with champagne and caviar, then whisked directly to their planes in a customized BMW.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
That’s a private customized investment approach designed to reduce losses during market downturns by combining investments in stocks with hedging tools such as options, futures and/or short-selling.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
It also manufactured shoes that were customized to account for Kerr’s asymmetrical push-off.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
There wasn’t a thing in the way of diversions, nowhere to buy a book or even a magazine that didn’t involve speedboats, customized cars, or guns and ammo.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
Vargo purchased her home in April 2025 for about $450,000, spending closer to $465,000 all in after customizing finishes like lighting, fixtures and hardware.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 24, 2026
Her story also illustrates that customizing AIs with your own data doesn’t mean you have to be a software engineer like Bala.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
Aaliyah Warren, 23, professional roller skater, model and performer: We love customizing our boots, so we get them graffitied and painted.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2025
It seems that many consumers prefer to buy bananas as a collective, customizing bunches to their needs by tearing off any they don't want.
From Salon ● Dec. 31, 2024
Lena had been creating paint-by-numbers canvases for him, sketching them with expert speed, customizing each image to his specifications.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
