visualize — English Dictionary

Verb

1. To perceive (something) visually; to see.

   Usage

   • Transitive

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   Be sure to find an area far away from the city or street lights, the darker the better. Lean back or lie flat on your back with your feet facing south and visualize as much of the sky as possible. Most meteors appear as faint streaks in the sky.

2. To depict (something) in a way which can be seen.

   Usage

   • Transitive

   Examples

   to visualize data using a chart

   More examples (3)

   When [Vincent] van Gogh paints sunflowers, he reveals, or achieves, the vivid relation between himself, as man, and the sunflower, as sunflower, at that quick moment in time. His painting does not represent the sunflower itself. We shall never know what the sunflower itself is. And the camera will visualize the sunflower far more perfectly than van Gogh can. The vision on the canvas is a third thing, utterly intangible and inexplicable, the offspring of the sunflower itself and van Gogh himself.

   The black male model in the hoodie references the trope of the urban black menace so clearly visualized in the ghetto action films of the early 1990s as well as in contemporary music videos.

   By becoming a male-to-female crossdresser, Chan-Hyo BAE gains insight into his identity under dual oppression. Out of the desire to know himself better, he boldly breaks into the regional differences between the East and West, the time differences between the past and present, and the gender differences between man and woman. […] Bae visualizes such differences and exposes the fallacy through his deviant, transgressional work, Existing in Costume.

3. To form a mental picture of (something); to picture (something) in the mind; to envisage.

   Usage

   • Transitive

   Examples

   In our own poetry we get from [Geoffrey] Chaucer the first instance of self-analysis and description, the first case of visualising self.

   More examples (3)

   The humanitarian, frequently ignoring hard reality, visualises one cosmopolitan community where justice and social sympathy measured in terms of some one set of units reign supreme.

   And though I can still see the shape of her that day huddled on the steps, her back view when we were in the car, her brown tweed suit and squashy felt hat, I can't visualize her face at all. When I try to, I just see the photograph I have of her.

   Trains have increased in weight far beyond anything visualised when the bridge was designed, but it has never undergone any major structural alterations, and continues to carry main-line traffic without weight restriction.

   Possible developments such as electric or diesel suburban services may be visualised when the town has grown sufficiently to justify them.

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   Visualize a perfect place, perfect space in your mind / Visualize rainbow's end, in golden skies / I know heaven can feel you're not far away / Let it be reality / For all not just for some

4. To make (a hidden or unclear body part, process, or object) visible by optical methods (such as endoscopy, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound, or X-rays), or other techniques.

   Usage

   • Transitive

   Antonyms

   hide

   Narrower terms

   image

   Examples

   More examples (2)

   An investigation is described in which the phenomena of afterglow were utilized to make visible the low-density supersonic flows of various gases. […] The afterglow is shown to be effective in visualizing some of the features of the flow in this range of low densities where it is difficult or impracticable to obtain comparable results with schlieren methods.

   When small masses are to be detected, it is necessary to visualise as much of the lung as possible with as little structured noise as possible. This is accomplished with high-voltage, wide-latitude, image recording and possibly beam equalisation.

5. To perceive something visually.

   Usage

   • Intransitive

   Examples

   His first impression was that he had tackled a dozen Oochaks instead of one. Beyond that first impression his mind did not work, nor did his eyes visualize.

6. To form a mental picture of something; to picture something in the mind.

   Usage

   • Intransitive

Verb

1. imagine; conceive of; see in one's mind

   Synonyms

   visualiseenvisionprojectfancyseefigurepictureimage

   Broader terms

   imagineconceive ofideateenvisage

   Examples

   I can't see him on horseback!

   I can see what will happen

   More examples (1)

   I can see a risk in this strategy

2. view the outline of by means of an X-ray

   Synonyms

   visualise

   Broader terms

   watchviewseecatchtake in

   Examples

   The radiologist can visualize the cancerous liver

3. form a mental picture of something that is invisible or abstract

   Synonyms

   visualise

   Broader terms

   imagineconceive ofideateenvisage

   Examples

   Mathematicians often visualize

4. make visible

   Synonyms

   visualise

   Broader terms

   changealtermodify

   Examples

   With this machine, ultrasound can be visualized