Meaning & use
visualize
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To form a picture of something in your mind, especially something not in front of you.
Grammar: Takes an object: visualize the route.
Patterns
- visualize something
- visualize yourself doing something
Close your eyes and visualize a quiet beach.
I can visualize the room exactly as it looked.
She visualized herself crossing the finish line.
verbtransitive
To show data or ideas in a picture, chart or diagram so they are easier to understand.
Grammar: Takes an object: visualize the data.
Patterns
- visualize something as something
The software lets you visualize sales trends as a map.
Engineers visualize airflow with colored smoke.
A simple chart helps visualize the difference.
Word forms
| third person singular | visualizes |
|---|---|
| past tense | visualized |
| past participle | visualized |
| -ing form | visualizing |
Common combinations
- visualize success
- Athletes often visualize success before a race.
- visualize data
- The team uses charts to visualize data.
- hard to visualize
- A billion dollars is hard to visualize.
- visualize the future
- Try to visualize the future you want.
- visualize yourself
- Visualize yourself giving the talk calmly.
Synonyms and how they differ
- imagine
- Imagine is broader and can include sounds, feelings and ideas, while visualize is specifically about seeing a mental picture.
- picture
- Picture is a more casual verb for seeing something in your head, with less sense of effort or technique.
- envision
- Envision usually looks to a future goal or possibility, and sounds more formal and ambitious.
- conceive
- Conceive means to form an idea or plan and does not require an image.
Word family
- visualization noun
- the act of forming a mental picture or a graphic display
- visual adjective
- relating to sight
- visually adverb
- in a way that relates to sight
- visualizer noun
- a person or tool that visualizes
Commonly confused: visualize or realize?
visualize vs realize
Realize means to become aware of a fact or to make something real; visualize means to picture something in the mind.
Practice
The coach asked the players to ___ the perfect pass before taking the shot.
Choose one answer.
Visualize means to form a clear mental picture. Realize is a tempting similar-sounding word but means to become aware of something.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “visualize”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.