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:
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
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
It powers our appliances and gives us light on demand, but we can’t start a romance with it or ask it to summarize a book.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026
To summarize, she’s left herself wide open to a challenge.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2026
“Very well, everyone, an excellent lesson. Homework, kindly read the chapter on boggarts and summarize it for me...to be handed in on Monday. That will be all.”
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
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
Another file summarizes statements from seven federal government employees who separately reported "several unidentified anomalous phenomena" in the United States in 2023.
From Barron's ● May 8, 2026
Savouri summarizes the problem as “analogue economics in a digital monetary world.”
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 15, 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
Alfonsi’s parting words to the Columbia Journalism Review perfectly summarized the nightmare unfolding at CBS: “The arrogance, cruelty, and incompetence is stunning.”
From Salon ● Jun. 1, 2026
The study identified several major patterns, which are summarized below along with simplified explanations.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 26, 2026
The hearings are ostensibly intended to gather information, all of which will be summarized in a white paper being written by researchers at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2026
Tuttle’s thesis can be summarized best by the title of his note: “Europe Just Started Building a ‘Kill Switch’ for U.S.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 2, 2026
The differences between the old service and the new can be summarized in this change.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
A memo summarizing Bard’s probe earlier this year found that Botstein solicited donations from Epstein and visited his island in 2012.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 17, 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
By summarizing the life you’ve lived so far and the life you want to have from now on, you add meaning and intentionality to your days.
From MarketWatch ● May 19, 2026
I’m terrible at summarizing films, so I was like, ‘Ma, you do it.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2026
Everyone was settled and the playwright was about to begin her little speech summarizing the plot and evoking the excitement of performing before an adult audience tomorrow evening in the library.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
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.
