Word.ws English Dictionary

internalise

internalise is the non-Oxford British English standard spelling of internalize.

Meaning of internalize

Verb

internalize (third-person singular simple present internalizes, present participle internalizing, simple past and past participle internalized)

  1. (British, English, Oxford, US, transitive) To make something internal; to incorporate it in oneself.
    • You are not going to get good at socialising by approaching social situations like it's a formula where you do 1, 2 and 3 from a book, but books can definitely help you internalize useful things if you get what I'm saying.
    1. (British, English, Oxford, US, transitive) To process new information in one's mind.
    2. (British, English, Oxford, US, transitive) To refrain from expressing (a negative emotion), to one's psychological detriment; to bottle up.
      • Well, I can't get angry, okay? I mean, I have a tendency to internalize. I can't express anger. That's one of the problems I have—I grow a tumor instead.1979, Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman, Manhattan, spoken by Isaac (Woody Allen), United Artists
  2. (British, English, Oxford, US, transitive) To store (a string or other structure) in a shared pool, such that subsequent items with the same value can share the same instance.
    Synonyms:
    intern
  3. (British, English, Oxford, US) To transfer stocks between brokers within an organization, rather than through the exchange.

Forms of internalise

third-person singular presentinternalises
present participleinternalising
past participleinternalised
pastinternalised

Origin of internalise

From internal + -ise.

Words formed from internalise

Questions about internalise

What is internalise the non-Oxford British English standard spelling of?
Internalise is the non-Oxford British English standard spelling of internalize.

Words near internalise in the dictionary

  1. internal-combustion-engined
  2. internalin
  3. internalins
  4. internalisation
  5. internalisations
  6. internalise
  7. internalised
  8. internalises
  9. internalising
  10. internalism
  11. internalisms

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: internalise (page history and authors); internalize (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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Cite this entry: “internalise.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/internalise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.