realize

verb

1. (US, transitive)To become aware of, understand, or appreciate (a fact or situation, especially something which has been true for some time).

   “He realized that he had left his umbrella on the train.”

   “She desperately yelled at her young daughter, frantic to make her realize what she had done.”

   “[S]he cannot realize the change we must undergo. She has no idea of poverty but in the abstract: she has only read of it in poetry, where it is allied to love.”

   “But Scott, unaccountable as it seems, evidently failed to realize how far superior is Clara Mowbray [in Saint Ronan's Well] to all his other heroines of the same rank or class.”

   “Have faith in God! He shall dispose thy lot, / Nor weep for woe thou realisest not: / They shall precede thee to the better land, / And meet and greet thee on its joyful strand.”

2. (US, transitive)To sense (something) strongly or vividly as if real.

   “Over the mind of the tourist, visiting the Old World for the first time,—countries where have transpired thrilling events recorded in history, what an immensity of thought and feeling sweeps! It was thus with Natalie; she could not realize that she was treading in the footsteps of royalty, who living in long past days, had held sway over this land, had looked upon this land of "merrie England" as their home.”

   “That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it.”

3. (transitive)To cause (something) to seem real; to make realistic; specifically, to present (something) clearly to the mind, a person, (archaic) oneself, etc., so that it seems real.

   “Its true that Faith may be ſaid, as you ſpeak, to Realize ſalvation to the Soul; that is, vvhen the Soul doubteth vvhether there be indeed ſuch a Glory and Salvation to be expected and enjoyed by Believers, as Chriſt hath promiſed, here Faith apprehendeth it as Real or Certain, and ſo reſolves the doubt.”

   “[T]rue Faith is ſuch as realizeth Things abſent, remote and future. That it is not the nearneſs of a thing makes it real; but Faith ſeeth a Thing to be real, though afar off; vvhen vve are apt to judge many times of the reality of things, becauſe they are near.”

   “[I]t vvas ſo vvarm in my Imagination, and ſo realiz'd to me, that to the Hour I ſavv them, I could not be perſuaded, but that it vvas or vvould be true; […]”

   “[F]aith realiſeth the ſufferings of Chriſt; it looks upon Chriſt as the common treaſury of all grace, as the principle of life, and root of holineſs.”

   “The terror they [apprehensions] gave me, ſeveral times avvakened me; but ſtill, as I cloſed my eyes, I fell into them again. VVhence, my dear, proceed theſe ideal vagaries, vvhich, for the time, realize pain or pleaſure to us, according to their hue or complexion, or rather according to our ovvn?”

4. (transitive)To convert (something imaginary or planned, as a goal or idea) into reality; to bring into real existence, to make real.

   “Near-synonyms: implement, execute; actualize, materialize, embody; accomplish”

   “The objectives of the project were never fully realized.”

   “The Apoſtle ſaith, That by Adam ſinne entred into the vvorld. It ſufficeth to knovv; That God, by juſt imputation, realizeth the infection into the vvhole race of Adam; in vvhom vve vvere as in a common Lumpe, and in his leaven ſovvred: […]”

   “[I]f vve defæcate the notion from materiality, […] it vvill be as hard to apprehend, as that an empty vviſh ſhould remove Mountains: a ſuppoſition vvhich if realized, vvould relieve Siſyphus.”

   “[W]e realize vvhat Archimedes had only in Hypotheſis; vveighing a ſingle grain againſt the Globe of Earth.”

5. (reflexive, transitive)To achieve (one's) potential.
6. (transitive)To convert (an asset or property, especially investments such as bonds, shares, etc.) into a more easily usable form such as money, especially by selling the asset or property.

   “By realizing the company’s assets, the liquidator was able to return most of the shareholders’ investments.”

   “Profits from the investment can be realized at any time by selling the shares.”

   “A dealer doing a large amount of business, and turning over his capital rapidly, has but a small portion of it in ready money at any one time. […] [W]hen he retires from business it is into money that he converts the whole, and not until then does he deem himself to have realized his gains: […]”

   “[H]is client was willing to realize most of his assets in order to provide for his wife and eldest daughter.”

7. (transitive)To acquire (money, a profit, etc.) by selling an asset or property, through trade, etc.; also (followed by on), to make (money or a profit) on an investment, a venture, etc.

   “to realize large profits from a speculation”

   “The tvvo Perſons here mentioned vvere of Quality, each of vvhom in the time of the Miſſiſipi deſpis'd to realize above three hundred thouſand pounds.”

   “Knighthood was not beyond the reach of any man who could by diligent thrift realise a good estate.”

   “Rodney explained that he knew I cared about the things, and was proud of them, but he'd always supposed I meant to "realize" on them, just as he did, and that it would come to money in the end.”

8. (transitive)Of an asset or property: to generate (a specific amount of money or interest) when invested or sold.
9. (transitive)To turn (an abstract linguistic object, especially a phoneme) into a speech sound actually used in a language.

   “The southern /v/ is realized as the voiced approximant [ʋ].”

   “The phonetic realization of schwa varies; […] Many (probably most) speakers realize it as [ø] or [œ] in other contexts as well. In Midi French, schwa is realized more frequently than in northern varieties, including in word-final position, where it generally (but not always) corresponds to etymological /ə/.”

10. (transitive)To obtain an entity from (an abstract group or structure).
11. (transitive)To arrange (a musical work written for a single performer) to be performed by an orchestra; to orchestrate.
12. (transitive)To complete (a musical work which is incomplete or not fully notated).
13. (transitive)Chiefly in Baroque music: to play an accompaniment, harmonies, etc., based on (a figured bass).
14. (US, obsolete, transitive)To have an actual or real experience of (something).
15. (intransitive)To become aware of or understand a fact or situation.
16. (intransitive)To cause to seem real; to make realistic.

    “[Johann Wolfgang von] Goethe never sculptured an Apollo, nor painted a Madonna. He gives us only sinful Magdalens and rampant Fauns. He does not so much idealize as realize.”

17. (intransitive)To convert an asset or property into a more easily usable form such as money.

    “A lucky purchase which he had made of shares in a copper-mine added very considerably to his wealth, and he realised with great prudence while this mine was still at its full vogue.”

    “Wary men took the alarm, and began to realize, a word now first brought into use to express the conversion of ideal property into something real.”

18. (intransitive)Followed by on or upon: to acquire money or a profit from the sale of an asset or property.
19. (intransitive, obsolete)With an adverb like badly or well: of an asset or property being sold: to generate little or a lot of money.

    “The estate is expected to realize well as it comprises many valuable assets.”