Word.ws English Dictionary

internalize

US/ɪnˈtɝnəlaɪz/

internalize verb: to make something internal; to incorporate it in oneself.

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.

internalize meaning in Tamil and Kannada

internalize in Tamil

உள்வாங்கு, உட்கிரகி, அகவயமாக்கு

internalize in Kannada

ಒಳಮಾಡು

Examples of internalize in a sentence

  • This is learned helplessness: internalizing that you don’t have control in difficult scenarios.
  • Ideally, the subject will then internalize these demands, and then become complicit in the kafkatrapping of others.
  • Someone who has 'got their eye in' has internalized an ability to draw to scale.

All 21 example sentences with internalize

Synonyms of internalize

Forms of internalize

third-person singular presentinternalizes
present participleinternalizing
past participleinternalized
pastinternalized
alternative forminternalise

Past tense of internalize: internalized

Origin of internalize

From internal + -ize.

Words formed from internalize

Questions about internalize

What does internalize mean?
Internalize means to make something internal; to incorporate it in oneself.
What is internalize in Tamil?
Internalize in Tamil is உள்வாங்கு, உட்கிரகி, அகவயமாக்கு. See Internalize meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is internalize?
Internalize is a verb.
How do you pronounce internalize?
Internalize is pronounced /ɪnˈtɝnəlaɪz/ (US).
What is the past tense of internalize?
The past tense of internalize is internalized.

Words near internalize in the dictionary

  1. internalities
  2. internality
  3. internalizable
  4. internalization
  5. internalizations
  6. internalize
  7. internalized
  8. internalizer
  9. internalizers
  10. internalizes
  11. internalizing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: internalize (page history and authors); internalize (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); internalize (Kannada 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.

Last updated:

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

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