vocalize

American  

[voh-kuh-lahyz] / ˈvoʊ kəˌlaɪz /

especially British, vocalise

verb (used with object)

• vocalizes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• vocalized,
  past participle,  past
• vocalizing
  present participle

1. to make vocal; utter; articulate; sing.

2. to endow with a voice; cause to utter.

3. Phonetics.

   1. to voice.

   2. to change into a vowel (contrasted with consonantalize).

4. (of Hebrew, Arabic, and other writing systems that do not usually indicate vowels) to furnish with vowels or vowel points.

---

verb (used without object)

• vocalizes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• vocalized,
  past participle,  past
• vocalizing
  present participle

1. to use the voice, as in speech or song.

2. to sing without uttering words, especially to warm up the voice, practice vowel sounds, etc., before a performance.

3. to sing scales, arpeggios, trills, or the like, usually to a solmization syllable or a vowel sound.

4. Phonetics. to become changed into a vowel.

vocalize British  

/ ˈvəʊkəˌlaɪz /

verb

1. to express with or use the voice; articulate (a speech, song, etc)

2. (tr) to make vocal or articulate

3. (tr) phonetics

   1. to articulate (a speech sound) with voice

   2. to change (a consonant) into a vowel

4. another word for vowelize

5. (intr) to sing a melody on a vowel, etc

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• misvocalization
  noun
• nonvocalization
  noun
• vocalization
  noun
• vocalizer
  noun
• subvocalize
  verb
• unvocalized
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• vocalizing
  present
• vocalized
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• vocalize
  simple
• vocalizes
  simple
• have vocalized
  perfect
• has vocalized
  perfect
• am vocalizing
  progressive
• are vocalizing
  progressive
• is vocalizing
  progressive
• have been vocalizing
  perfect progressive
• has been vocalizing
  perfect progressive

Past

• vocalized
  simple
• had vocalized
  perfect
• was vocalizing
  progressive
• were vocalizing
  progressive
• had been vocalizing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will vocalize
  simple
• will have vocalized
  perfect
• will be vocalizing
  progressive
• will have been vocalizing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of vocalize

First recorded in 1660–70; vocal + -ize

Explanation

When you speak, sing, or utter any kind of sound, you vocalize. A tiny baby can only vocalize gurgles and coos, but by the time she's three or four, she'll vocalize all kinds of opinions. Vocalize literally means to make a noise using your voice — in fact, vocalize is rooted in the Latin root word for "voice," vox. It's nearly a synonym for verbalize, "put into words," except that when you vocalize you may speak using words or you may merely make noises. So while your dog is smart enough to vocalize a response when you say, "Speak," he's still not smart enough to verbalize.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

vocalize vocalizes vocalized vocalizing

But I could not vocalize a single word.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2026

“So, I went up on my medicine and I see my therapist. I try to see her every Wednesday, and I try to vocalize a lot when I’m feeling overwhelmed.”

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 5, 2024

A number of professional athletes also spoke out in response to the post to vocalize discontent with the uniform.

From Salon ● Apr. 22, 2024

Research has shown that cats meow primarily when in the presence of humans, suggesting that we can’t help but skew the app’s inputs, while some cats rarely vocalize at all.

From Slate ● Nov. 13, 2023

I was trying to think of some way to vocalize this epiphany when Judy came back with the drinks.

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

Take, for example, a chimp who vocalizes and pulls at the bars of their enclosure when someone approaches.

From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2024

While Bill vocalizes one warning — that getting close to someone is how you get killed in the world of the game — his purpose is to serve as the opposite.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2023

He traverses the stage, wrapping a feather and fabric concoction by the costume designer Marianne Fassler around his body, as he vocalizes mournfully: a requiem for a new generation.

From New York Times ● Sep. 23, 2022

It’s a tale of sound; the song of a solitary whale that vocalizes at a unique frequency, 52 Hertz, that no other whale—as the story goes—can seemingly understand.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 28, 2021

Then she said, in her abrupt way, "What vocalizes do you sing?"

From In the Courts of Memory, 1858 1875; from Contemporary Letters by Hegermann-Lindencrone, L. de (Lillie de)

It started with a blowup with contestant Ace Greene after he vocalized his discomfort with Espinal touching him and using terms of endearment, in particular the word “babe.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2025

The lawmakers, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren and 20 congressional Democrats, vocalized their disappointment in a scathing letter signed last Sunday.

From Salon ● Feb. 2, 2025

At the press opening for the Metropolitan Museum’s beyond-beautiful “Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India, 200 B.C.E.-400 C.E.,” five red-robed monks chanted Pali blessings, the vocalized equivalent of oceanic silence.

From New York Times ● Jul. 21, 2023

Because the bats spend so much time huddled together and fly so quickly, it can be hard to identify them or figure out which bat vocalized.

From Scientific American ● Jun. 16, 2023

Kendra realized the problem before Seth vocalized it.

From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull

"It's reacting, it has both eyes open, it's vocalizing, but it's incredibly uncertain and it's scared," he said.

From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2026

It wasn’t until recent weeks that people began really vocalizing their animosity.

From Slate ● Feb. 27, 2026

Hundreds of billions of dollars were wiped from public markets after prominent CEOs and analysts started publicly vocalizing concerns about an AI bubble.

From Barron's ● Nov. 20, 2025

Her lovely, ethereal vocalizing briefly infuses the show with the heart and soulful spirit that is conspicuously absent from Mr. Coen’s writing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025

Still, decisions about crescendos and decrescendos, tempo, and score reading have to be made, but there are endless possibilities for vocalizing and playing these child-centered compositions.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin