customize
Americanverb (used with object)
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customizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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customized,
past participle, past
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customizing
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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customizationnoun
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customizernoun
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customizableadjective
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noncustomizedadjective
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semicustomizedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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customizesimple
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customizessimple
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have customizedperfect
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has customizedperfect
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am customizingprogressive
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are customizingprogressive
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is customizingprogressive
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have been customizingperfect progressive
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has been customizingperfect progressive
Past
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customizedsimple
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had customizedperfect
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was customizingprogressive
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were customizingprogressive
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had been customizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of customize
Explanation
To customize something is to make it exactly how you want it. If you put stickers all over your plain old notebook, you customize it. If you see the word customer in customize, you’re onto something — to customize is to make something to a customer’s specifications. When clothes are customized — or tailored — they’re made with you in mind, specifically. A customized suit should fit perfectly. If you customize your car, it could be bright pink with eyelashes on the headlights. Or not.
Vocabulary lists containing customize
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:
The ROI on enterprise adoption continues to be hit-or-miss, driven in part by companies struggle to integrate AI tools into corporate systems and customize them for specific business needs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
The beauty of Finch is that it actively deters you from an all-or-nothing mindset; you can customize your goals realistically to your lifestyle and needs.
From Slate ● Sep. 6, 2026
Palantir is instead allowing customers to customize and run models on their own infrastructure and retain full ownership of their data.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 3, 2026
Like most of China's offerings, it costs less and uses source code that programmers can customize.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
“The default setting is typically ‘help,’ but you can customize as the situation allows.”
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
While Apple customizes many components inside iPhones, Khan said, “there isn’t a lot of customization” for memory, alluding to the possibility that commodity Chinese memory chips could be used.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
Whenever she’s on the hunt for a new pair, her first stop is the Rose Bowl Flea Market where she finds Allyn Scura, a local vendor, who customizes vintage frames.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2025
This new testing method further advances precision medicine, which is a patient care approach that customizes treatments specifically for a person's genetics, environment and lifestyle.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 18, 2024
Elevate analyzes and tracks your improvement and customizes a training program just for you.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 20, 2021
The plant sometimes customizes guns with scratches and blemishes by painting American flags on them, she said.
From Washington Post
Because some DNA sequences can be programmed to interact more strongly than others, scientists may eventually be able to take advantage of these properties to build customized DNA structures for biotechnology.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 10, 2026
She had experience painting sets at work for the entertainment industry, but had never customized a rental of her own like this.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Her biggest purchase: several customized computer chips and development boards that ran around $10,000.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
The American AI industry has poured far more resources into proprietary, or “closed,” models, while Chinese companies have rapidly advanced open-weight models that can be cheaper to operate and easily customized.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
Now that I’m close enough to him, I can take in the details of the chair’s solid gold rims and customized engraved leather.
From "Warcross" by Marie Lu
"It avoids the complex process of customizing cells and uses readily available drugs to reversibly enhance NK cells' anti-tumor activities."
From Science Daily ● May 25, 2026
Vargo purchased her home in April 2025 for about $450,000, spending closer to $465,000 all in after customizing finishes like lighting, fixtures and hardware.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 24, 2026
The key is to have fun with building and customizing your maximalist egg.
From Salon ● Mar. 21, 2026
In theory, the feature lets you skip the work of customizing your own instructions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
Lena had been creating paint-by-numbers canvases for him, sketching them with expert speed, customizing each image to his specifications.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
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.
