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digitization

American  
[dij-it-ahyz-ay-shuhn] / ˌdɪdʒ ɪtˌaɪzˈeɪ ʃən /

noun

  1. the conversion or adaptation of something, such as data, an analog display, an activity, or a process, to a digital form or environment.


Explanation

The process of converting pictures, sound, or information into a form that a computer can easily read is digitization. Before the digitization of music, people listened to their favorite songs using record players. In order to interpret information, a computer needs that information to take a particular form — specifically, binary code, which represents data using only the digits 1 and 0. Converting analog information (like a photograph or words on the pages of a book) into this digital form is digitization. This process is necessary in order for you to read your favorite book on an e-reader or to watch your parents' old home movies on a laptop.

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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:

Just a couple of days before that now-infamous blog post, the firm inadvertently provided a different, no-less-perfect example of the perils of mass digitization.

From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026

Last month, Nolan told “60 Minutes” that in this age of digitization and AI, shooting his films with a 70mm Imax camera is “a human process, an analog process.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026

Its biggest driver of growth is increasing digitization and cloud usage, but now AI brings a host of new things that require monitoring like autonomous agents.

From Barron's ● May 7, 2026

The effort, known as Antscan, could guide future large scale digitization projects for many kinds of organisms.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 10, 2026

In recent years the digitization technology evolved so I could do just that.

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman

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