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)
-
materialized,
past participle, past
-
materializing
present participle
-
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:
He regularly comes across what he calls “ghost listings,” job postings that never materialize into a real role.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026
Rival fintech Stripe and Advent International offered to buy the company for $60.50 a share this summer, The Wall Street Journal has reported, but a deal has yet to materialize.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026
Whether severe storms will materialize this winter remains an unanswered question.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026
While rising factory utilization could support future expansion and investment, the benefits to wages and employment have yet to materialize, he reckons.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026
Finally, today, farmhouses begin to appear, and then come the gas stations and feed stores that mean a city is about to materialize.
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
As the talk flies and arguments re-emerge, a vital era of Black political and artistic liberation suddenly materializes in a packed living room — as if waiting to be evoked by a shared spirit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026
Regional governments are getting involved, with Bavaria committing up to 400 million euros to Proxima if federal funding also materializes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 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
This is what happens: A hovercraft marked with the Capitol’s seal materializes directly over the barricaded children.
From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins
Less than two years later, Villareal said the promise of her vote never materialized.
From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2026
The idea, which was met with fierce opposition from banks, hasn’t materialized.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 28, 2026
Where the worry has materialized is over his support with Black voters, among whom Abdul El-Sayed performed poorly in the primary.
From Slate ● Oct. 17, 2026
While many on Wall Street are warning that high rates could pull money out of the stock market and into higher yielding bonds, so far that hasn’t materialized.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
And when the man in black had somehow materialized to spoil his plans, the Prince came close to going insane with rage.
From "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman
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 bond-market worry about rising prices is materializing on construction sites and on the shelves of home-improvement centers and hardware stores.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026
Management has been calling for a “hockey stick” in AI consumption during the second half of 2026 and into 2027, and Blakey said the guidance boost suggests that dynamic is materializing ahead of schedule.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 23, 2026
The Assassin stepped forward, materializing from the tree line as if out of thin air.
From "The Reader" by Traci Chee
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
