Word.ws English Dictionary

initialize

/ɪˈnɪʃəlaɪz/

initialize verb: to assign initial values to something.

Verb

initialize (third-person singular simple present initializes, present participle initializing, simple past and past participle initialized)

  1. (British, English, Oxford, US) To assign initial values to something.
  2. (British, English, Oxford, US) To assign an initial value to a variable.
  3. (British, English, Oxford, US) To format a storage medium prior to use.
  4. (British, English, Oxford, US) To prepare any hardware (such as a printer or scanner) for use.
  5. (British, English, Oxford, US, dated) To reduce (a phrase) to an initialism, or a word to its initial.

initialize meaning in Tamil and Vietnamese

initialize in Tamil

தொடக்க மதிப்பளி

initialize in Vietnamese

to assign an initial value to a variable
khởi tạo

Forms of initialize

third-person singular presentinitializes
present participleinitializing
past participleinitialized
pastinitialized
alternative forminitialise

Past tense of initialize: initialized

Origin of initialize

From initial + -ize.

Words formed from initialize

Questions about initialize

What does initialize mean?
Initialize means to assign initial values to something.
What is initialize in Tamil?
Initialize in Tamil is தொடக்க மதிப்பளி. See Initialize meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is initialize?
Initialize is a verb.
How do you pronounce initialize?
Initialize is pronounced /ɪˈnɪʃəlaɪz/.
What is the past tense of initialize?
The past tense of initialize is initialized.

Words near initialize in the dictionary

  1. initialist
  2. initialists
  3. initializable
  4. initialization
  5. initializations
  6. initialize
  7. initialized
  8. initializer
  9. initializers
  10. initializes
  11. initializing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: initialize (page history and authors); initialize (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-AnotherFriendlyHuman-initialize.wav.

Cite this entry: “initialize.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/initialize. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.