crystallize

American  

[kris-tl-ahyz] / ˈkrɪs tlˌaɪz /

especially British, crystallise

verb (used with object)

• crystallizes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• crystallized,
  past participle,  past
• crystallizing
  present participle

1. to form into crystals; cause to assume crystalline form.

2. to give definite or concrete form to.

   to crystallize an idea.

3. to coat with sugar.

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verb (used without object)

• crystallizes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• crystallized,
  past participle,  past
• crystallizing
  present participle

1. to form crystals; become crystalline in form.

2. to assume definite or concrete form.

crystallize British  

/ ˈkrɪstəˌlaɪz /

verb

1. to form or cause to form crystals; assume or cause to assume a crystalline form or structure

2. to coat or become coated with sugar

   crystallized fruit

3. to give a definite form or expression to (an idea, argument, etc) or (of an idea, argument, etc) to assume a recognizable or definite form

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• crystallizability
  noun
• crystallization
  noun
• crystallizer
  noun
• crystallizable
  adjective
• noncrystallizable
  adjective
• noncrystallized
  adjective
• noncrystallizing
  adjective
• uncrystallizable
  adjective
• uncrystallized
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• crystallizing
  present
• crystallized
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• crystallize
  simple
• crystallizes
  simple
• have crystallized
  perfect
• has crystallized
  perfect
• am crystallizing
  progressive
• are crystallizing
  progressive
• is crystallizing
  progressive
• have been crystallizing
  perfect progressive
• has been crystallizing
  perfect progressive

Past

• crystallized
  simple
• had crystallized
  perfect
• was crystallizing
  progressive
• were crystallizing
  progressive
• had been crystallizing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will crystallize
  simple
• will have crystallized
  perfect
• will be crystallizing
  progressive
• will have been crystallizing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of crystallize

First recorded in 1590–1600; crystall- + -ize

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

crystallize crystallizes crystallized crystallizing

Some studies suggest that carbon may crystallize into diamonds deep inside these planets.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 20, 2026

“Maybe in 24 hours, when things crystallize with the deal.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2026

Strong demand, solid early performances and improving profitability outlooks will crystallize the sector’s hold on markets and strengthen the industry’s case to skeptics.

From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026

Even the Piker issue—the one that seems to crystallize so much of the anxiety there—he treated as over-indexed.

From Slate ● Apr. 29, 2026

He waited for it to crystallize and show its teeth on the edges of the cool quiet that had pooled in the Waystone.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

As more material crystallizes, silicon dioxide becomes increasingly concentrated in the remaining melt.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 12, 2026

“This situation perfectly crystallizes the global nature of infectious diseases,” Bhadelia said.

From MarketWatch ● May 6, 2026

That expansion crystallizes the yearslong flow of credit outside the tightly regulated banking system and into riskier, more opaque businesses.

From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2025

Still, the figure crystallizes something we’ve all felt for a while — that boomers are giving more money to their millennial or Gen Z offspring than past generations.

From Salon ● Apr. 9, 2025

The reality crystallizes for me, though, when Dad instructs us to take off our blindfolds and Debbie and Zara are standing in front of us.

From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam

The team crystallized the enzyme and studied it at the Institut de Biologie Structurale in Grenoble, France.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026

"There's not a consensus, by any means, that's crystallized in the United States on what, if anything, to do about AI," he said.

From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026

These concerns are crystallized in his 1956 play “The Visit,” a work that has some of the hallmarks of the absurdist comedies of the period but just as many differences.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026

“So all of these things are having really profound ripple effects. This is a situation where you really are seeing crystallized the need for bio preparedness.”

From Salon ● May 11, 2026

A candy vendor was barking about sweet, chewy manna that had crystallized on the stalagmites of Thulm.

From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin

It also fears crystallizing financial losses on its portfolio by selling bonds, preferring to realize losses slowly by paying more interest on reserves than it earns on bonds.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026

There’s always been more to Garrone’s movies than unkindness, but he has a striking facility for crystallizing human baseness in images that are both specific and laden with surplus meaning.

From New York Times ● Feb. 22, 2024

The supervisors’ decision was “a very crystallizing moment,” Armstrong said on the phone afterward.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 13, 2023

Researchers leveraged state-of-the-art cryogenic electron microscopy to reveal the structure in its natural state, rather than earlier techniques that required crystallizing vast quantities of identical molecules to form an artificial picture of their native structure.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2023

So we might want to claim that it is the book—or rather, in this case, the well-stocked library—that transforms the status of experiment; by crystallizing past knowledge, the library makes new knowledge possible.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton