materialize
Americanverb (used without object)
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materializes,
present (3rd person singular)
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materialized,
past participle, past
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materializing
present participle
verb (used with object)
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materializes,
present (3rd person singular)
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materialized,
past participle, past
-
materializing
present participle
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to give material form to; realize.
This year, she materialized her long-held ambition to go to law school.
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to invest with material attributes.
The writer materializes the more abstract ideas with metaphors, making the concepts easier to grasp.
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to make physically perceptible; cause (a spirit or the like) to appear in bodily form.
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to render materialistic.
verb
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(intr) to become fact; actually happen
our hopes never materialized
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to invest or become invested with a physical shape or form
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to cause (a spirit, as of a dead person) to appear in material form or (of a spirit) to appear in such form
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(intr) to take shape; become tangible
after hours of discussion, the project finally began to materialize
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physics to form (material particles) from energy, as in pair production
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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materializesimple
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materializessimple
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have materializedperfect
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has materializedperfect
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am materializingprogressive
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are materializingprogressive
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is materializingprogressive
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have been materializingperfect progressive
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has been materializingperfect progressive
Past
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materializedsimple
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had materializedperfect
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was materializingprogressive
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were materializingprogressive
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had been materializingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of materialize
Explanation
When you materialize, you show up suddenly after being missing, unborn, or unseen. Think of Harry Potter removing his invisibility cloak. He materializes. Living things aren't the only things that materialize. Car keys and reading glasses materialize when you've been searching for them for a while and then they are suddenly there on the table. If you're lucky an unexpected business deal will materialize. Like material, the word is related to the Latin word meaning "matter." Matter, is, of course, all the stuff of this earth, anything and everything that takes form. So to materialize is to take form.
Vocabulary lists containing materialize
100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know
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The Lightning Thief
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Essential Academic Vocabulary for Middle School Students, List 3
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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:
Young voters said they felt frustrated waiting for a better economy that has yet to materialize.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026
The third screenplay to materialize was “The Dog Stars.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
As a Fed governor 15 years ago, Warsh was more worried about inflation than nearly all of his colleagues, and for years it didn’t materialize.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Oracle are not building AI infrastructure because they anticipate demand will materialize.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
There was still a possibility that the body might materialize with the spring thaw.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Istanbul materializes as a still, dreamlike place in this distinctly modern thriller.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Whether it gets made, he said, depends on whether the fund materializes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
Even if the box-office falloff materializes as expected, the film is still expected to be a success for Universal.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026
Even those whose families migrated here seeking a “better life” can speak to how uneven the American dream materializes across class, race and country of origin.
From Salon ● Jun. 25, 2026
A hovercraft materializes and a ladder drops down.
From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins
In retrospect, Bonilla, 31, finds great irony in how that initial foray into professional acting fictionally materialized her Mexican immigrant parents’ worst nightmare.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
That effort eventually materialized into a special collection at UC San Diego.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
As we drove down to Orikum, a beach town south of Vlore, Aulon spoke at length about the other times they’ve been promised benefits from luxury tourist resorts that never materialized.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2026
A widely expected glut never materialized because Beijing was hoovering up so much crude to add to storage.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
I always materialized into seat 10B when I did this particular practice simulation.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
Data centers are mushrooming, so numerous and monolithic they seem abstract, until one starts materializing on the Conodoguinet Creek in Pennsylvania, where I grew up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
He doesn’t see “imminent” danger of any of the three risks he flagged materializing, which is why he’s staying bullish and “tactically positive on risk assets” — for now.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 3, 2026
The same-store sales streak and the new customers are a signal that the brand’s turnaround is materializing, Jefferies analyst Corey Tarlowe said in a note on Tuesday.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 2, 2026
The Bank of Canada report found businesses and households remain stable, with fears of trade tensions and mortgage renewals not materializing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
In each location the reunion drew large crowds, in which witnesses claimed they saw two ghosts from a bygone era materializing one final time for the benefit of the present generation.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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.
