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:
AI can draft a memo or summarize a meeting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Forty-eight percent of students in the Fordham survey admitted to using AI to solve math problems, 36% to summarize books, 29% to write first drafts or essays, and 26% for help during quizzes and tests.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 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
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
Just in case you’ve been living in a cave for the last fifty years, though, I’ll summarize.
From "How to Disappear Completely" by Ali Standish
The Gallup Economic Confidence Index summarizes Americans' assessments of current economic conditions and economic outlook and puts them on a scale of -100 to +100.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
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
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
The answer is best summarized by a response from one of the documentary’s co-directors, Julia Willoughby Nason, when asked whether she thinks Netflix is the top source for true crime obsessives.
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 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
Often the counts were accompanied by a spiraling sequence of drawings on a hide, with each year summarized by a drawing as an aide-memoire.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
The book’s stories are interrupted with sidebars summarizing Mr. Meyers’s business beliefs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 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
“My AI is in the room during Zoom calls with clients. It’s taking notes, summarizing the meeting and writing follow-up emails.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
He returned to summarizing the book, emphasizing examples of where Valjean served others.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
