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materialize

verb

Simple meaning

To take physical form, to appear seemingly from nowhere.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

muhtihreeuhlyz

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

məˈtɪɹiəlaɪz

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. intransitive

    To take physical form, to appear seemingly from nowhere.

  2. transitive

    To cause to take physical form, or to cause an object to appear.

  3. intransitive

    To become real (of a plan, idea, etc.); to come to fruition.

  4. transitive

    To regard as matter; to consider or explain by the laws or principles which are appropriate to matter.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient
Frequency
Rare
Typical Use
Primarily written

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To take physical form, to appear seemingly from nowhere.

Used this way, materialize is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use materialize

  • “Her dream really materialized.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

actually materializematerialize beforeever materializefully materializesuddenly materialize

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.