memorize

American  

[mem-uh-rahyz] / ˈmɛm əˌraɪz /

especially British, memorise

verb (used with object)

• memorizes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• memorized,
  past participle,  past
• memorizing
  present participle

1. to commit to memory; learn by heart.

   to memorize a poem.

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verb (used without object)

• memorizes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• memorized,
  past participle,  past
• memorizing
  present participle

1. to learn by heart.

   I've always been able to memorize easily.

memorize British  

/ ˈmɛməˌraɪz /

verb

1. (tr) to commit to memory; learn so as to remember

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• memorization
  noun
• memorizer
  noun
• rememorize
  verb (used with object)
• memorizable
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• memorizing
  present
• memorized
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• memorize
  simple
• memorizes
  simple
• have memorized
  perfect
• has memorized
  perfect
• am memorizing
  progressive
• are memorizing
  progressive
• is memorizing
  progressive
• have been memorizing
  perfect progressive
• has been memorizing
  perfect progressive

Past

• memorized
  simple
• had memorized
  perfect
• was memorizing
  progressive
• were memorizing
  progressive
• had been memorizing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will memorize
  simple
• will have memorized
  perfect
• will be memorizing
  progressive
• will have been memorizing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of memorize

First recorded in 1585–95; memor(y) + -ize

Explanation

If you memorize something you know it by heart. When you were a little kid, you were probably asked to memorize “The Pledge of Allegiance,” meaning you could recite it from memory with no cheat sheets. To memorize something is to get it into your memory, but it usually implies you’re learning something more complex than a new acquaintance’s name or the time of your next dentist appointment. People typically memorize things like multiplication tables, the periodic chart, Shakespearian quotes, lines for the community theater play, and their nine hundred different online passwords. There are many systems that people use for memorization: flash cards, association, color coding, and even sleeping with the book under their pillow.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

memorize memorizes memorized memorizing

The team already used hand signals to call plays, so when Wallace joined in the spring of his sophomore year, all he had to do was memorize those signals.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026

Well, you don’t have that much time to memorize that stuff because you get the script and I’m learning 50 pages of dialogue every eight or 10 days.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026

But even though adults of all ages can do well in acquiring a new language, fear – or the memory of struggling to memorize grammar at school – can hold us back.

From Science Daily ● May 22, 2026

Under the current system, catchers and pitchers are expected to memorize those numbers and then recall them perfectly in the heat of competition.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026

“You have to memorize ten Bible verses plus the books of the Old and New Testaments. And it’s a park.”

From "Betty Before X" by Ilyasah Shabazz and Renée Watson

Below, the actor from Arkansas, 70, talks about being a mouthpiece for Sheridan, smoking on the job and how his dyslexia and obsessive compulsive disorder influence the way he memorizes lines.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 6, 2025

Because of the large number of parameters in machine learning models, there is a potential that the machine learning method memorizes some data it was trained on.

From Salon ● Jun. 1, 2024

It’s why he rarely uses notes in his public appearances and memorizes vast amounts of facts and figures.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 7, 2023

Later, as a student in Oxford, Jeanie memorizes a line from Flannery O’Connor: “Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.”

From New York Times ● Aug. 2, 2022

She reads the first half of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea so many times, she practically memorizes it.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

But AI wasn’t allowed for quizzes or exams testing memorized subjects, said the 22-year-old, who majored in business computer information systems.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 22, 2026

It was exciting because I’ve never — to get on set and to be able to say, like, “We can do the first 25 pages just because we’ve already memorized it.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2026

This refers to the ability to apply learned skills beyond the exact situations encountered during training, using general rules rather than memorized examples.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 28, 2026

They repeatedly sang a Hebrew song of their own composition, which another inmate memorized and was able to recall after the war.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026

He had memorized his instructions: Carrying a local newspaper, the Nieuwe Rotterdamse Courant, in his right hand, he walked slowly to a small square at the end of a long boulevard.

From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau

OK cool, but I’m not memorizing a dozen names.

From Slate ● Jul. 16, 2026

The researchers compared this to a student who scores well by memorizing test formats without actually understanding the material.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 30, 2026

Deeper analysis showed ravens were in fact revisiting spots where wolves commonly took down prey -- animals like deer, elk or bison -- suggesting the birds were creating and memorizing a "resource landscape."

From Barron's ● Mar. 12, 2026

While kids in regular public schools put in their numbing hours, students in spreading networks of classical charters get meaty reading assignments—myths, fairy tales, great books—while also memorizing sonnets and elements of America’s founding documents.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 16, 2026

While they are performing their pattern, they are simultaneously listening and memorizing the new pattern.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin