Summarize

How to spell summarize

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce summarize

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does summarize mean?

1. verbTo give a brief statement of the main points of something.

Summarize in a sentence

• The report asks each manager to summarize last quarter's results in a single page.

• Please summarize the meeting for colleagues who could not attend.

Where does summarize come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This verb is built on the noun 'summary', which English took in the late 1400s from the Latin summarium, meaning 'an abridgement' or 'a brief account'. The deeper root is summa, the Latin word for 'the highest point' or 'the total', because Roman accountants wrote the grand total at the top of a column rather than the bottom, so the 'sum' was literally the topmost figure. From that idea of gathering everything into one total came the sense of boiling a long text down to its essence. The verb 'summarize' itself appeared in the early 1800s, formed by adding the active suffix -ize to mean 'to reduce to a summary'. The same summa root still surfaces in 'sum', 'summit' and 'consummate', and the -ize spelling here reflects the Greek-derived suffix that English and Latin both used for making verbs.

How the word is built

• summar- (from Latin summa: the top, the total)
• -ize (verb-forming suffix meaning 'to make or do')

British and American spelling

Summarize is the American spelling. British English spells it summarise.