materialize
Americanverb (used without object)
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materializes,
present (3rd person singular)
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materialized,
past participle, past
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materializing
present participle
verb (used with object)
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materializes,
present (3rd person singular)
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materialized,
past participle, past
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materializing
present participle
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to give material form to; realize.
This year, she materialized her long-held ambition to go to law school.
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to invest with material attributes.
The writer materializes the more abstract ideas with metaphors, making the concepts easier to grasp.
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to make physically perceptible; cause (a spirit or the like) to appear in bodily form.
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to render materialistic.
verb
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(intr) to become fact; actually happen
our hopes never materialized
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to invest or become invested with a physical shape or form
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to cause (a spirit, as of a dead person) to appear in material form or (of a spirit) to appear in such form
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(intr) to take shape; become tangible
after hours of discussion, the project finally began to materialize
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physics to form (material particles) from energy, as in pair production
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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materializesimple
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materializessimple
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have materializedperfect
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has materializedperfect
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am materializingprogressive
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are materializingprogressive
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is materializingprogressive
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have been materializingperfect progressive
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has been materializingperfect progressive
Past
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materializedsimple
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had materializedperfect
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was materializingprogressive
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were materializingprogressive
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had been materializingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of materialize
Explanation
When you materialize, you show up suddenly after being missing, unborn, or unseen. Think of Harry Potter removing his invisibility cloak. He materializes. Living things aren't the only things that materialize. Car keys and reading glasses materialize when you've been searching for them for a while and then they are suddenly there on the table. If you're lucky an unexpected business deal will materialize. Like material, the word is related to the Latin word meaning "matter." Matter, is, of course, all the stuff of this earth, anything and everything that takes form. So to materialize is to take form.
Vocabulary lists containing materialize
100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know
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The Lightning Thief
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Essential Academic Vocabulary for Middle School Students, List 3
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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:
If a September rate hike doesn’t materialize, investors can’t keep demanding higher yields on concerns the Fed hasn’t got inflation under control, the strategist argued.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
Had I accidentally discovered a supernatural portal where time and space didn’t exist, one where random phenomena of blinding beauty could materialize on this plane without any logical explanation?
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Oracle are not building AI infrastructure because they anticipate demand will materialize.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
Cardillo sets his near-term price target at $4,375 a troy ounce, also noting that next week’s Fed meeting may provide more clarity to how interest rate hikes could materialize going forward.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
I stood at the empty chair as if I could make Agent materialize with just a stare.
From "Shelter (Book One): A Mickey Bolitar Novel" by Harlan Coben
A bright blue first-place ribbon materializes and becomes the perfect accessory.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
Even those whose families migrated here seeking a “better life” can speak to how uneven the American dream materializes across class, race and country of origin.
From Salon ● Jun. 25, 2026
Even if a peace deal eventually materializes, the oil price isn’t likely to fall back to levels seen before the war.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026
For the full year, Wall Street projects SLB to grow annual sales about 2%, an outlook that could prove to be conservative if the postconflict scenario materializes sooner rather than later.
From Barron's ● May 28, 2026
Light materializes now in the bedroom as well.
From "I Am the Messenger" by Markus Zusak
Pride said she rewatched the original series, paying particular attention to the shift that materialized in Season 2 when Allen was brought on to overhaul it, as a starting point.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
The firm, which bought Aevex in 2020, hired Jefferies in late 2023 to solicit bids for sale, a person familiar with the matter said, but a deal never materialized.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Such lines of business have not yet materialized.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
The deal was supposed to help him secure a Trump pardon after a federal gun case, but the pardon never materialized, and Boosie is now trying to recover part of the money through arbitration.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026
After some initial confusion over how a sheep had suddenly materialized in the observatory, the children jostled for turns to look through the lens at the unsuspecting creature.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
Support is also materializing among state-owned enterprises, with actual orders placed, MS adds in a research note.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026
The bond-market worry about rising prices is materializing on construction sites and on the shelves of home-improvement centers and hardware stores.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026
Airline mergers have been notoriously difficult to complete in recent years, and while it isn’t impossible, UBS analysts said the chances of a deal materializing “are probably remote.”
From Barron's ● Apr. 14, 2026
Doing so would penalize some software companies for expenses that may not end up materializing to such an extreme degree, he added.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 21, 2026
As my avatar finished materializing, I looked down and realized that the floor I’d been standing on earlier was now gone.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
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.
