Visualize

How to spell visualize

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce visualize

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does visualize mean?

1. verbTo form a clear mental picture of something, or to make something visible or able to be seen.

Visualize in a sentence

• Athletes often visualize a perfect performance before competing.

• The software lets analysts visualize complex data as simple charts.

Where does visualize come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on the Latin visualis, meaning 'relating to sight', which in turn grew from videre, 'to see', and its past participle visus, 'seen'. English already had the adjective 'visual' by the 1400s, taken through Old French and Latin to describe anything connected with the eyes or with seeing. The verb 'visualize' is a much later coinage, appearing in the early nineteenth century when English speakers added the productive ending -ize to mean 'to form a mental picture of something'. The same videre root sits inside a whole family of everyday words, including 'vision', 'visible', 'video', and 'evidence', all of which trace back to the idea of seeing. The spelling trap is the -ize ending and the unstressed 'u' in the middle, since the word is said 'VIZH-oo-uh-lize' and writers can forget that hidden vowel.

How the word is built

• visual- (from Latin visus: sight, the act of seeing)
• -ize (verb-forming suffix: to make or render)

British and American spelling

Visualize is the American spelling. British English spells it visualise.