Meaning & use
memorize
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Meaning
verbtransitive
To learn something so well that you can repeat it exactly without looking at it.
Grammar: Always takes an object: memorize the poem. British English also spells it memorise.
Patterns
- memorize something
- memorize something by heart
The actors had to memorize forty pages of dialogue in two weeks.
I memorized her phone number because my battery kept dying.
Students often memorize formulas without understanding why they work.
Word forms
| third person singular | memorizes |
|---|---|
| past tense | memorized |
| past participle | memorized |
| -ing form | memorizing |
Common combinations
- memorize a poem
- Each child had to memorize a short poem for the recital.
- memorize a list
- He memorized the list of capital cities on the train.
- memorize lines
- She memorizes her lines while walking the dog.
- memorize by heart
- We were told to memorize the oath by heart.
- hard to memorize
- Long passwords are hard to memorize.
- memorize a route
- The courier memorized the route through the old town.
Synonyms and how they differ
- learn by heart
- Learn by heart means the same thing but is a more conversational phrase, while memorize is a single verb that works in any register.
- commit to memory
- Commit to memory is more formal and slightly literary, and it often suggests careful, deliberate effort.
- learn
- Learn is much broader, since you can learn a skill or an idea without being able to repeat it word for word.
- cram
- Cram means to memorize in a hurry, usually just before an exam, and it often suggests the knowledge will not last.
Opposites
Word family
- memory noun
- the ability to remember, or something remembered
- memorization noun
- the process of learning something exactly
- memorable adjective
- easy to remember or worth remembering
- memorizer noun
- a person who memorizes
- memorizable adjective
- able to be memorized
Commonly confused: memorize or memorialize? memorize or remember?
memorize vs memorialize
Memorialize means to honor the memory of a person or event, for example with a statue, not to learn something by heart.
memorize vs remember
Remember is about having something in mind or recalling it, and it needs no deliberate effort the way memorize does.
Practice
Before the quiz, Tom tried to ____ all twenty verb forms by repeating them aloud.
Choose one answer.
Memorize means to learn something exactly so it can be recalled. Memorialize and commemorate are about honoring someone or something, and memorandum is a noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “memorize”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.