visualize

American  

[vizh-oo-uh-lahyz] / ˈvɪʒ u əˌlaɪz /

especially British, visualise

verb (used without object)

• visualizes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• visualized,
  past participle,  past
• visualizing
  present participle

1. 

   to recall or form mental images or pictures.

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verb (used with object)

• visualizes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• visualized,
  past participle,  past
• visualizing
  present participle

1. to make visual or visible.

2. to form a mental image of.

3. to make perceptible to the mind or imagination.

visualize British  

/ ˈvɪʒʊəˌlaɪz, -zjʊ- /

verb

1. to form a mental image of (something incapable of being viewed or not at that moment visible)

2. med to view by means of an X-ray the outline of (a bodily organ, structure, or part)

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• revisualization
  noun
• visualist
  noun
• visualization
  noun
• visualizer
  noun
• revisualize
  verb
• nonvisualized
  adjective
• unvisualized
  adjective
• visualizable
  adjective
• well-visualized
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• visualizing
  present
• visualized
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• visualize
  simple
• visualizes
  simple
• have visualized
  perfect
• has visualized
  perfect
• am visualizing
  progressive
• are visualizing
  progressive
• is visualizing
  progressive
• have been visualizing
  perfect progressive
• has been visualizing
  perfect progressive

Past

• visualized
  simple
• had visualized
  perfect
• was visualizing
  progressive
• were visualizing
  progressive
• had been visualizing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will visualize
  simple
• will have visualized
  perfect
• will be visualizing
  progressive
• will have been visualizing
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of visualize

First recorded in 1810–20; visual + -ize

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Explanation

To visualize something is to be able to see it in your mind. From the twitching in their feet, it seems that sleeping dogs often visualize a fenced-in area and about 30 squirrels. Visualizing is a lot like imagining — both involve picturing something in your mind. But while imagine has the sense of wondering and exploring, when you visualize something, your hope is to make it real. Basketball players visualize themselves making a shot to help them sink the basketball in the hoop. Visualize yourself getting the job as you're going in to be interviewed and your chances for success will increase.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

visualize visualizes visualized visualizing

To understand his journey, you have to go back years and visualize the scene from his days as an 11-year-old.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026

I laughed trying to visualize what she said.

From Salon ● Aug. 7, 2026

These risks include a Chernobyl-like or Chinese wet market accident—a mass disruption event in a form we might not even be able to visualize right now.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026

His Vulcan and Hestia projects, supported by multiple federal agencies, quantify and visualize greenhouse gas emissions nationwide, from individual power plants and roadways to neighborhoods.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 18, 2026

For example, if you are about to run a race, you visualize yourself running the race and crossing the finish line first, and presto!

From "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech

In this masterpiece of Japanese painting, Shōhaku visualizes his version of an old Chinese legend.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

This technique visualizes how groups of neurons coordinate their activity, revealing patterns of organization.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 4, 2025

The image also visualizes the star’s magnetic field lines, highlighting the magnetic connection between the star and the planet.

From Space Scoop ● Jul. 17, 2025

I’m drawn to how your work visualizes not only this dispossession but the informal, affective narratives that can’t be taken away or possessed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2023

The man who visualizes is safe from that intellectual weakness and moral danger.

From Theodore Roosevelt; an Intimate Biography by William Roscoe Thayer

“Beginnings: The Story of Creation in the Middle Ages” explores how the biblical concept of Genesis has been interpreted and visualized across time, starting with artists making work during the Middle Ages.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 23, 2026

I would see his name credited as a writer and I always visualized that someday I wanted to be in the back cover of an album.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 26, 2026

The Journal visualized the scene with 3-D modeling software using diagrams from vehicle manufacturers, open-source mapping data, crime-scene photos, court documents and interviews with firearms experts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 21, 2025

For the first time we've pulled them out and visualized them from the human brain.

From Salon ● Feb. 7, 2025

When you said “Devon” to an alumnus ten years after graduation he visualized the Center Common.

From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles

Still, the streaming giant seems to be focusing mainly on the edges of production -- from visualizing a concept early on to color-grading footage after filming wraps.

From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026

You will often see Wembanyama close his eyes before free throws, visualizing the swish.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 1, 2026

No film since Jonathan Glazer’s wizardly “The Zone of Interest” has wielded such a meticulously controlled formal approach to visualizing the insidiousness of moral rot.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2026

"We hope this new technique of visualizing synaptic membrane dynamics in live brain tissue samples can help us understand similarities and differences in nonheritable and heritable forms of the condition," Watanabe says.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 1, 2025

This was Dad’s new thing since Mom left—creatively visualizing everything from making dinner to the weekly grocery shopping.

From "Please Ignore Vera Dietz" by A.S. King

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Related Words

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