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PlainSpell

initialize

/ɪˈnɪʃəlaɪz/verb

initialize is spelled I-N-I-T-I-A-L-I-Z-E: 10 letters and 4 syllables. It appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 56,108th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, initialize means “To assign initial values to something” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in initialize?

Letters10: I-N-I-T-I-A-L-I-Z-E
Syllables4 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 4 million words; the 56,108th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is initialize?

Initialize appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 56,108th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce initialize?

  • /ɪˈnɪʃəlaɪz/

Initialize has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-AnotherFriendlyHuman-initialize.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of initialize

  • initializes present, singular, he/she/it
  • initializing participle, present
  • initialized participle, past
  • initialise

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does initialize mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    BritishUSTo assign initial values to something.

  2. 2

    BritishUSTo assign an initial value to a variable.

  3. 3

    BritishUSTo format a storage medium prior to use.

  4. 4

    BritishUSTo prepare any hardware (such as a printer or scanner) for use.

  5. 5

    BritishUSdatedTo reduce (a phrase) to an initialism, or a word to its initial.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate initialize?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of initialize: init.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Initialize in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchinitialiser (to assign initial values to something)
Germaninitialisieren (to assign initial values to something)
Portugueseinicializar (to assign initial values to something)
Spanishinicializar (to assign an initial value to a variable)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does initialize come from?

From initial + -ize.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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