maximize
Americanverb (used with object)
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maximizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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maximized,
past participle, past
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maximizing
present participle
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to increase to the greatest possible amount or degree.
to look for ways of maximizing profit.
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to represent at the highest possible estimate; magnify.
He maximized his importance in the program, minimizing the contributions of the other participants.
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to make the greatest or fullest use of.
Maximize your time by planning ahead.
verb
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(tr) to make as high or great as possible; increase to a maximum
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maths to find the maximum of (a function)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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maximizesimple
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maximizessimple
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have maximizedperfect
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has maximizedperfect
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am maximizingprogressive
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are maximizingprogressive
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is maximizingprogressive
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have been maximizingperfect progressive
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has been maximizingperfect progressive
Past
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maximizedsimple
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had maximizedperfect
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was maximizingprogressive
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were maximizingprogressive
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had been maximizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of maximize
Explanation
When you maximize something, you make it as big as you possibly can, the way you would maximize your chances of winning the lottery if you spent all of your money on lottery tickets. It seems like you come across the word maximize most often in dry, boring contexts like businesses trying to "maximize" their profits or a politician wanting to "maximize" her government's potential. Regular people probably use it more often when they're talking about their computers, to mean "display a window at its largest size." When you maximize a window on your computer, you can actually see what the word means!
Vocabulary lists containing maximize
Scrabble: High Scoring Words
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20 Common Words That Will Boost Your Scrabble Score
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Workshop 2, Part 1
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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:
“Now they have an entirely different lever to pull to maximize profitability,” which is a positive development for their business.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
Apple often tailors components to its devices to maximize performance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
When today’s starters exit a game, they are simply replaced by a bullpen arm who comes in and does the same thing: maximize effort for velocity and spin on every pitch.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
“FIFA’s responsibility,” he added, “is not to maximize commercial returns at any cost.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Because I’ll tell you something else about myself: I believe good plans are the best way to maximize fun, avoid disaster, and, possibly, save the world.
From "Ida B" by Katherine Hannigan
As the lines between podcasts, video and traditional talk shows have blurred, and every hot take gets clipped and spread across the internet, Charlamagne’s approach maximizes the current moment in media.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
Banana Ball is fast-paced, hilarious and maximizes fan engagement.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 5, 2026
This approach maximizes bandwidth efficiency and adapts to changes in signal quality.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 2, 2026
“The WBD Board has been guided by the singular principle of securing a transaction that maximizes the value of our iconic assets and delivers as much certainty as possible to our shareholders,” Warner Bros.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 26, 2026
Intensive agriculture is much more productive but maximizes the land’s exposure.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
In this case, HP also raised prices, maximized the value of the inventory it already had, and tried to push demand to higher-margin products.
From Barron's ● May 29, 2026
Hopkinson told the Financial Times Business of Football Summit last month that Newcastle had not "maximized the opportunity before it".
From BBC ● Mar. 23, 2026
The restaurant’s ambitious, maximized layering of mouth-watering ingredients has been hailed by L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2026
“We have maximized our buy for these components from other sources as much as we could,” Ford COO Kumar Galhotra said on a call with analysts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2025
Each side minimized its own and maximized the enemy's.
From The Great Fortress : A chronicle of Louisbourg 1720-1760 by William Charles Henry Wood
Thompson has proven that so far in Chargers training camp, sprinting around defenders and maximizing his 5-foot-9, 170-pound frame in passing drills.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2026
Meta, she said in a call with analysts, was focused on maximizing computing capacity this year and next, but spoke of “flexibility” and “being able to evaluate our actual needs in ’28 and beyond.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
He has emphasized his focus on maximizing shareholder value and has said the company should look at “optimizing our portfolio,” sometimes seen as Wall Street code for selling parts of the business.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
Instead of attempting full reusability from the beginning, the design focuses on partial reuse while maximizing efficiency.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
To judge from their behavior, all the rating agencies worried about was maximizing the number of deals they rated for Wall Street investment banks, and the fees they collected from them.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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.
