CRYSTALLIZE

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does crystallize mean? 

• CRYSTALLIZE (verb)
  The verb CRYSTALLIZE has 4 senses:

1. cause to take on a definite and clear shape

2. make free from confusion or ambiguity; make clear

3. cause to form crystals or assume crystalline form

4. assume crystalline form; become crystallized

  Familiarity information: CRYSTALLIZE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CRYSTALLIZE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they crystallize    ... he / she / it crystallizes   
Past simple: crystallized   
Past participle: crystallized   
-ing form: crystallizing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause to take on a definite and clear shape

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

crystalise; crystalize; crystallise; crystallize

Context example:

He tried to crystallize his thoughts

Hypernyms (to "crystallize" is one way to...):

form; shape (give shape or form to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

crystallization (a mental synthesis that becomes fixed or concrete by a process resembling crystal formation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make free from confusion or ambiguity; make clear

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

clear; clear up; crystalise; crystalize; crystallise; crystallize; elucidate; enlighten; illuminate; shed light on; sort out; straighten out

Context example:

Clear up the question of who is at fault

Hypernyms (to "crystallize" is one way to...):

clarify; clear up; elucidate (make clear and (more) comprehensible)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Cause to form crystals or assume crystalline form

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

crystalise; crystalize; crystallise; crystallize

Context example:

crystallize minerals

Hypernyms (to "crystallize" is one way to...):

change integrity (change in physical make-up)

Cause:

crystalise; crystalize; crystallize; effloresce (assume crystalline form; become crystallized)

Domain category:

natural philosophy; physics (the science of matter and energy and their interactions)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

crystal (colorless glass made of almost pure silica)

crystal (a solid formed by the solidification of a chemical and having a highly regular atomic structure)

crystallization (a rock formed by the solidification of a substance; has regularly repeating internal structure; external plane faces)

crystallization; crystallizing (the formation of crystals)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Assume crystalline form; become crystallized

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

crystalise; crystalize; crystallize; effloresce

Hypernyms (to "crystallize" is one way to...):

solidify (become solid)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "crystallize"):

devitrify (become crystalline)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

crystal (colorless glass made of almost pure silica)

crystal (a solid formed by the solidification of a chemical and having a highly regular atomic structure)

crystallization (a rock formed by the solidification of a substance; has regularly repeating internal structure; external plane faces)

crystallization; crystallizing (the formation of crystals)

 Context examples 

This technique requires a protein to first be crystallized into a fixed 3-D shape.

(Structural states of a brain receptor revealed, NIH)

They examined cores drilled through ocean crust to see the first minerals to crystallize.

(Earth's mantle looks like a painting, National Science Foundation)

They crystallized the receptors in the presence of various chemicals that turn the channel on or off.

(Structure of receptor involved in brain disorders, NIH)

That homogeneity, or sameness, indicates the crystallizing magma was well-mixed.

(Supervolcanoes like Yellowstone may have been more active in the past, NSF)

To become a reporter now, just as my style is taking form, crystallizing, would be to commit literary suicide.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It is prepared by heating phthalic anhydride and resorcinol over a zinc catalyst, and it crystallizes as a deep red powder.

(Fluorescein, NCI Thesaurus)

They're also mixed with sediment, suggesting they crystallized in a wet environment - possibly just beneath evaporating shallow ponds filled with briny water.

(NASA's Curiosity Rover Finds an Ancient Oasis on Mars, NASA)

That collaboration will crystallize on the full moon, on February 8 or 9 (plus four days or minus two days). (Whether the full moon falls on February 8 or 9 will depend on your time zone.) The full moon will glow in your opposite sign of Leo at 20 degrees, and Leo rules your house of serious, committed partnerships and collaborations, usually covered by a contract.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Had she been fourteen instead of twenty-four, she might have been changed by them; but she was twenty-four, conservative by nature and upbringing, and already crystallized into the cranny of life where she had been born and formed.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)