verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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summaristnoun
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summarizationnoun
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summarizernoun
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summarizableadjective
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unsummarizableadjective
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unsummarizedadjective
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well-summarizedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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summarizesimple
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summarizessimple
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have summarizedperfect
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has summarizedperfect
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am summarizingprogressive
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are summarizingprogressive
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is summarizingprogressive
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have been summarizingperfect progressive
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has been summarizingperfect progressive
Past
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summarizedsimple
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had summarizedperfect
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was summarizingprogressive
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were summarizingprogressive
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had been summarizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of summarize
Explanation
To summarize something, only include the important stuff. If your teacher asks you to summarize several events from the Civil War, she wants the important facts, not every single detail you can find. When you summarize something, you write or tell the general idea and only the most important points. It's a skill we often use in school or at work, but even in our personal lives, we summarize: like when a friend asks what the book you're reading is about, or someone wants to know about your recent vacation. You don't tell them every single detail, talking yourself to exhaustion. Instead, you summarize — describing just the key events that "sum up" the experience.
Vocabulary lists containing summarize
The SAT: Language of the Test, List 1
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The Language of Standardized Tests, List 1
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PARCC: Language of the Test (Grade7)
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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:
To summarize, Nelson said: “It is important to let winners run. Common mistakes are to sell winners too soon and keep losers for too long.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
Government workers can use Claude to draft and summarize documents, analyze information and do other tasks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
As investors increasingly use AI to crunch numbers and summarize earnings calls, this research shows that they should be wary of relying on it for trading advice.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
The company said the suite of tools can give any agent —an AI which can work autonomously— the ability to synthesize and summarize scientific knowledge, evaluate results, and then reason and execute the next actions.
From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026
“It’s simple reading comprehension. Read the paragraph and summarize, in a couple of sentences, what it was about. That’s it. It’s not rocket science.”
From "A Very Large Expanse of Sea" by Tahereh Mafi
Yeah, the skit you used of him saying “I’m just a man from the ghetto” on the song really summarizes that.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
Another file summarizes statements from seven federal government employees who separately reported "several unidentified anomalous phenomena" in the United States in 2023.
From Barron's ● May 8, 2026
The growing popularity of chatbots has changed how consumers seek information online; many would rather have a free conversation with a tool that summarizes answers from a range of sources than click around for stories.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
As he summarizes, that’s roughly three times the move for roughly three times the volume of endangered crude.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 23, 2026
The break room summarizes the whole situation: there is none, because there are no breaks at Jerry’s.
From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich
The study identified several major patterns, which are summarized below along with simplified explanations.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 26, 2026
This week, those values were best summarized by Christina Koch, one of the astronauts on NASA’s Artemis II mission to orbit the moon.
From Salon ● Apr. 8, 2026
Those allegations were summarized in a document prepared by the FBI last summer and in an FBI presentation of prominent names in the Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases, the DOJ files show.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 25, 2026
It can be summarized as earnings before interest and taxes, divided by sales.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 23, 2026
The summary should be self-contained, almost as if the material being summarized had never existed.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
They often tune them to excel at narrow tasks, like summarizing documents or answering customer questions on company-specific topics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
The state now has 49 days to address the issues outlined in a report released Thursday summarizing the U.S.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
“My AI is in the room during Zoom calls with clients. It’s taking notes, summarizing the meeting and writing follow-up emails.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
The White House typically releases physician-written memos summarizing presidential physicals, translating full medical records into condensed clinical findings for public release.
From Salon ● May 31, 2026
For a while, I required the girls to write up a little report after each visit, summarizing what they had learned, though eventually they started protesting and I let the idea go.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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.
