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

Etymology

Origin of visualize

First recorded in 1810–20; visual + -ize

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

Tracer particles suspended in a thin electrolyte layer allowed the team to visualize and measure the movement of the fluid.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 3, 2026

"I recently tested this out on a scene and the ability to visualize and immediately share the storyboard was creatively freeing," he added.

From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026

When you hear a series of crisp, reverberating smacks outside your window, you visualize your neighbor’s child bouncing a basketball down the street.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026

Another reason why your Marathon Man is a formidable way to visualize your financial future: He must embody all of your experience.

From MarketWatch ● May 12, 2026

I know from memory the colors of the individual letters in his name, but I can’t visualize them together to know what the word would really look like.

From "A Mango-Shaped Space" by Wendy Mass

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

Rope strung between the space’s many columns visualizes where walls will appear.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 16, 2024

That fragile gleaming pixel reshaped how humanity visualizes its place in the Cosmos.

From Scientific American ● Oct. 18, 2023

He visualizes his most subtle and abstract conceptions—sees the idea wedded to its correlative in the actual world.

From The Last Harvest by Burroughs, John

“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

Inside a superconductor, these microscopic processes cannot be easily tracked or visualized.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 23, 2025

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

I visualized my parents during their last hours alive, both in bed, wearing their reading glasses, books in their laps.

From "Confessions of a Murder Suspect" by James Patterson

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 1, 2026

Directly visualizing how MraZ interacts with the promoter DNA that initiates cell division represents a significant breakthrough.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 14, 2026

Olympic skiers explain why many of them engage in a pre-race routine that includes visualizing the course in their mind as if they were skiing it in real time.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 15, 2026

“This is a different way of visualizing music and embracing the way it feeds the eyes,” Ms. Chan writes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026

He wrote: As I held the flask, I concentrated on the picture I’d formed in my mind of the cells, visualizing a disturbance in the cell fields and the cells blowing up.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

Related Words

• anticipate
• dream up
• envision