verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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summaristnoun
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summarizationnoun
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summarizernoun
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summarizableadjective
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unsummarizableadjective
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unsummarizedadjective
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well-summarizedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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summarizesimple
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summarizessimple
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have summarizedperfect
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has summarizedperfect
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am summarizingprogressive
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are summarizingprogressive
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is summarizingprogressive
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have been summarizingperfect progressive
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has been summarizingperfect progressive
Past
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summarizedsimple
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had summarizedperfect
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was summarizingprogressive
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were summarizingprogressive
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had been summarizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of summarize
Explanation
To summarize something, only include the important stuff. If your teacher asks you to summarize several events from the Civil War, she wants the important facts, not every single detail you can find. When you summarize something, you write or tell the general idea and only the most important points. It's a skill we often use in school or at work, but even in our personal lives, we summarize: like when a friend asks what the book you're reading is about, or someone wants to know about your recent vacation. You don't tell them every single detail, talking yourself to exhaustion. Instead, you summarize — describing just the key events that "sum up" the experience.
Vocabulary lists containing summarize
The SAT: Language of the Test, List 1
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The Language of Standardized Tests, List 1
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PARCC: Language of the Test (Grade7)
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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:
Artificial intelligence has proven it can speed up what humans already know how to do: write software, summarize earnings calls and automate routine tasks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
With half of 2026 having already flown by, it is time to summarize which stocks have performed best so far this year.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
As investors increasingly use AI to crunch numbers and summarize earnings calls, this research shows that they should be wary of relying on it for trading advice.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
The company said the suite of tools can give any agent —an AI which can work autonomously— the ability to synthesize and summarize scientific knowledge, evaluate results, and then reason and execute the next actions.
From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026
One way to summarize the views of people like Erickson and Balee would be to say that they regard this picture of Indian life as wrong in almost every aspect.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
These worrying landmarks reinforce a market perception that fixed-income investments are losing bets, a sentiment Hartnett summarizes as “Anything But Bonds.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
Yeah, the skit you used of him saying “I’m just a man from the ghetto” on the song really summarizes that.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
"Our work shows that both mitochondrial aging and broader systemic aging are, at least in part, modifiable. If we understand the underlying processes, we may be able to take targeted countermeasures," summarizes Dr. Ermolaeva.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 11, 2026
In totalitarian societies, she summarizes, “either you are destroyed by conforming to the regime, or you are destroyed through non-compliance.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
Table 5.1 summarizes, for these and other areas of local domestication, some of the best-known crops and animals and the earliest known dates of domestication.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
As Patti summarized it, "there is no free lunch" when searching for sugar alternatives, particularly when several metabolic pathways can ultimately lead toward liver dysfunction.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 6, 2026
Gen. Rob Bonta’s office summarized a strict new voter ID measure on November ballots — ruling that the summary language accurately describes the measure’s effects were it to pass.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
“Anything but bonds” would remain the default position of investors, neatly summarized as “can’t buy bonds, can’t sell stocks.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 10, 2026
“Most large companies have a view of their vendors that can be summarized as, ‘I’m going to allow you to do business with me, so that I can make money off of you.’”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Terryl summarized all this, and then added a final sentence.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
One way employees have used their AI agents is to manage their inbox: summarizing emails, filtering out spam messages and automatically drafting responses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
According to Tim Mackey, a professor of global health at the University of California, San Diego, A.I. responses appear to be getting better at summarizing research, weighing credibility, and discerning misinformation.
From Slate ● Aug. 26, 2026
The state now has 49 days to address the issues outlined in a report released Thursday summarizing the U.S.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
The White House typically releases physician-written memos summarizing presidential physicals, translating full medical records into condensed clinical findings for public release.
From Salon ● May 31, 2026
Unfortunately, he died in 1461, before he could carry out the task, although he had begun a preliminary book summarizing the edition of the Almagest that was available.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
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.
