personalize
Americanverb (used with object)
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personalizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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personalized,
past participle, past
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personalizing
present participle
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to have marked with one's initials, name, or monogram.
to personalize stationery.
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to make personal, as by applying a general statement to oneself.
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to ascribe personal qualities to; personify.
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to design or tailor to meet an individual's specifications, needs, or preferences.
a personalized search engine;
personalized learning.
verb
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to endow with personal or individual qualities or characteristics
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to mark (stationery, clothing, etc) with a person's initials, name, etc
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to take (a remark, etc) personally
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another word for personify
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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personalizesimple
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personalizessimple
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have personalizedperfect
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has personalizedperfect
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am personalizingprogressive
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are personalizingprogressive
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is personalizingprogressive
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have been personalizingperfect progressive
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has been personalizingperfect progressive
Past
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personalizedsimple
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had personalizedperfect
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was personalizingprogressive
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were personalizingprogressive
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had been personalizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of personalize
Explanation
To personalize is to design something (or change it) so it's distinctly suited for one specific individual. You can personalize your locker by taping up family photos, or personalize your water bottle by writing your name on it in permanent marker. The verb personalize is often used to mean "make to meet your specific requirements," so a hotel might personalize your visit by leaving a note with chocolates on your pillow, or a barista might personalize your latte with a design on top that's specially made for you. You can also personalize things by putting a person's name or initials on them: "I bought letter patches so we can personalize our backpacks."
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:
And it now allows users to select preferred news sources to personalize top stories that appear in search results, potentially driving more traffic to those sites.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
The company said it does not engage in surveillance pricing, nor does it personalize fares for individual customers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026
“By stripping out the ability to personalize or target them, you’re not really saving discounts at all,” Drew Ambrogi, a policy manager at Chamber of Progress, said in an interview with Salon.
From Salon ● May 18, 2026
It is time to ensure every American has access to a comprehensive, real-time, secure and private digital health record to personalize their care, improve their experience and reduce administrative costs.
From MarketWatch ● May 4, 2026
There were names carved on the bunks and magazine advertisements stuck onto nails in the walls, as if the women had tried to personalize the place, but it did not help.
From "The Devil's Arithmetic" by Jane Yolen
Your image of the virtual self personalizes your financial journey.
From MarketWatch ● May 12, 2026
Cincinnati-based Kroger is testing Google’s shopping agent, which helps customers compare grocery items, personalizes their shopping experience and can handle purchasing, according to Yael Cosset, the company’s chief digital officer and executive vice president.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 11, 2026
Laughton effectively embodies and personalizes the deeply felt dialectic between Alex and Jesse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2025
“It personalizes the person in need — their personality and the tangible specificity of their needs and goals.”
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 9, 2023
For everything that it loves, everything that it pities, love personalizes.
From Tragic Sense Of Life by J. E. Crawford (John Ernest Crawford) Flitch
Harper, an All-Star with the Philadelphia Phillies, said on Instagram that he created a troublesome, personalized 21-second video on behalf of FanDuel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
The researchers also see potential uses in home sleep monitoring, neuroscience research and personalized sleep treatments.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 7, 2026
The company also said it would be leaning into more personalized digital marketing and offerings to bring back frequent visitors.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026
Banks — and especially community banks that will go on to actually service the mortgage — can also offer more personalized service.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 17, 2026
It was personalized, Milly Johnson scrawled in a trendy pink-colored font at the top, and it took Grace a beat before realizing who Milly Johnson even was.
From "Far from the Tree" by Robin Benway
There’s also been a wave of new research aimed at personalizing care.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 7, 2026
Greetings, writing messages on cups, personalizing the hand off of orders, offering ceramic mugs and glass cups for people ordering drinks to stay, and cleaning the lobby and condiment bar were Starbucks’s top concerns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2025
The findings are a major step in personalizing cancer treatment and inspiring novel therapies that target and inhibit ARID1A and its protein complex.
From Science Daily ● May 15, 2024
And once you — and I’m personalizing this now, because the film requires this of its audience — once you have these things, what are you willing to disassociate from in order to keep them?
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2023
Grandma had stitched illustrations of my palm print into the dashiki, personalizing it to me.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
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.
