verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To assign initial values to something. British, English, Oxford, US
2. 2
   divide (a disk) into marked sectors so that it may store data wordnet
3. 3
   To assign an initial value to a variable. British, English, Oxford, US
4. 4
   assign an initial value to a computer program wordnet
5. 5
   To format a storage medium prior to use. British, English, Oxford, US

Show 2 more definitions

6. 6
   To prepare any hardware (such as a printer or scanner) for use. British, English, Oxford, US
7. 7
   To reduce (a phrase) to an initialism, or a word to its initial. British, English, Oxford, US, dated

Synonyms

All synonyms

adjudgedeclareformatformatinitialise

Example

More examples

"Before you can use them, you first need to initialize the variables."

Etymology

From initial + -ize.

Related Topic Clusters

Technical Writing Vocabulary

Clear, precise language for documentation, APIs, and technical specifications.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.