Realising

How to spell realising

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce realising

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does realising mean?

1. verbPresent participle of realise: coming to understand or become aware of something as a fact.
2. verbPresent participle of realise: bringing a plan, ambition, or asset into actual existence or value.

Realising in a sentence

• Realising her error, she immediately phoned the client to apologise.

• The firm is finally realising its long-term expansion plans.

• Without realising it, he had walked past the office twice.

• She is realising a lifelong ambition by opening her own studio.

Where does realising come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb realise, which English assembled from the adjective 'real' plus the verb-forming ending -ise. 'Real' descends from the Latin realis, meaning 'actual' or 'relating to things', itself built on res, the everyday Latin word for a 'thing' or 'matter'. English borrowed the verb in the early 1600s, partly modelled on the French réaliser, with the original sense of 'to make real' or 'to bring into actual existence', as in realising a plan. The familiar mental sense, 'to grasp or understand clearly', is a later development that took hold in the early 1800s, the idea being that something becomes real in the mind. The spelling trap lives in the ending: British and Canadian writers constantly see the American -ize form, so the -ising ending, faithful to the French-influenced tradition, is easy to overwrite.

How the word is built

• real (from Latin res: thing, matter)
• -ise (verb-forming suffix)
• -ing (present participle)

British and American spelling

Realising is the British spelling. American English spells it realizing.