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:
Her interpretation showed early how a jazz singer could personalize the ballad, imbuing it with her characteristic rhythmic freedom and emotional depth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
"We probably need to personalize protein recommendations based not just on age, but also on how physically active people are."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 2, 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
Some people personalize events excessively, resisting an external perspective, and since numbers and an impersonal view of the world are intimately related, this resistance contributes to an almost willful innumeracy.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
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
Velour personalizes her journey from social outcast to the fabulous 2017 winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2024
"It not only simplifies treatment by exploring single-dose schedules of antibody-drug conjugates but can also reduce side effects by minimizing the number of doses required. Additionally, it personalizes therapy using molecular imaging, enhancing treatment efficacy."
From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2023
Love, pity, personalizes everything, we have said; in discovering the suffering in everything and in personalizing everything, it personalizes the Universe itself as well—for the Universe also suffers—and it discovers God to us.
From Tragic Sense Of Life by J. E. Crawford (John Ernest Crawford) Flitch
The Federal Trade Commission seems poised to join the backlash against personalized pricing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
The findings, published in August 2025, came from the first randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial to demonstrate the effectiveness of personalized gait retraining for knee osteoarthritis over a full year.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026
We demand personalized service, but don’t always seem particularly interested in the people providing it.
From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026
Remarkably, the FTC’s proposal doesn’t cite a single instance of a company’s using personalized pricing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
Then we were to name ourselves for him, one by one, and thank him again with little personalized comments.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
Millions of Americans have tried the drugs, which have revolutionized the way physicians treat weight loss, but personalizing who gets which drugs is still a long way off — if it ever happens.
From MarketWatch ● May 18, 2026
You can do a lot, even just with your own personalizing of the app, to remind yourself that we’re all human in the end, and human interaction is also very healthy for us all.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 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
Swift performed the ultimate public display of affection as a popstar by personalizing a song lyric for him.
From Salon ● Nov. 14, 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.
