memorize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
have memorizedperfect
-
has memorizedperfect 3rd person singular
-
have been memorizingperfect progressive
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is memorizingprogressive 3rd person singular
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are memorizingprogressive
-
am memorizingprogressive 1st person singular
-
memorizingparticiple
-
memorizessingular 3rd person
-
has been memorizingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
Past
-
had memorizedperfect
-
were memorizingprogressive plural
-
memorizedsimple
-
was memorizingprogressive singular
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memorizedparticiple
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had been memorizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of memorize
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.
Vocabulary lists containing memorize
Holes
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Brown Girl Dreaming
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The Circuit
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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.
A simple place to start would be to memorize the best two-word speech to never appear in a major motion picture: Do better.
From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2026
To support that goal, the researchers have released some questions publicly while keeping the majority hidden so that AI models cannot simply memorize the answers.
From Science Daily • Mar. 13, 2026
You can watch “Jaws” enough times to memorize all the shark meals and still be unnerved by Captain Quint’s tale of the USS Indianapolis.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 15, 2026
When she got to the U.S. decades later, she would tape dollar bills to the wall to memorize the country’s currency, which landed her a cashier job.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 25, 2025
But in the end, history is not just about wars and constitutional amendments, facts we memorize.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
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.
