Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

visualization

British  
/ -zjʊ-, ˌvɪʒʊəlaɪˈzeɪʃən /

noun

  1. the act or an instance of visualizing

  2. a technique involving focusing on positive mental images in order to achieve a particular goal

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Explanation

You can see it all so clearly: the mansion, the moat, the stable. Too bad it’s just a visualization, a mental image that looks so real it’s almost as if you’re seeing it. Time to buy another Lotto ticket. Often the word is used as shorthand for creative visualization, a specific practice that started in the New Thought movement of the 19th century. The followers of that movement believed that if they visualized what they wanted, they would usually get it. Eventually the technique caught on with sports coaches, which is why if you've ever played basketball for a school team you've probably been told to picture the ball going into the basket before you take a shot.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing visualization

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.

The work, presented at the Eurographics Conference on Visualization, represents the culmination of a broader color perception project that also produced a landmark 2022 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

From Science Daily • Feb. 23, 2026

"Visualization is so important to me," Zizo adds.

From BBC • May 28, 2024

Amanda Makulec is a health data visualization designer, speaker and instructor and the executive director of the Data Visualization Society.

From New York Times • May 11, 2022

Over six grim pandemic months, from March to September of 2020, researchers at the MIT Visualization Group tried to find out how COVID-19 skeptics were talking about science and data.

From Slate • Mar. 11, 2021

V3 = Visualization of so vivid a kind as to possess the mind completely.

From The Writing of the Short Story by Smith, Lewis Worthington

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Look it up. Learn it forever.

Remember "visualization" for good with VocabTrainer. Expand your vocabulary effortlessly with personalized learning tools that adapt to your goals.

Take me to Vocabulary.com