synthesized; synthesizing
Synonyms of synthesize

transitive verb

1
: to combine or produce by synthesis
2
: to make a synthesis of
3
: to produce (something, such as music) by an electronic synthesizer

intransitive verb

: to make a synthesis

Did you know?

Synthesize is a very common word in chemistry, since chemists are constantly synthesizing new compounds—that is, synthetic compounds—including drugs and industrial chemicals. It's also often used when talking about writing; nonfiction writers must often synthesize large amounts of material from many sources to produce a book—which represents a synthesis of the important materials. An electronic synthesizercreates new sounds (which may imitate the sounds of acoustic instruments) by generating different basic tones and then manipulating and merging them together with others.

Examples of synthesize in a Sentence

She synthesized the treatment from traditional and modern philosophies of medicine. He synthesized old and new ideas to form his theory. Amino acid is synthesized in the body.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Discovery and development Clozapine was named in 1959 by researchers at the Swiss pharmaceutical company Wander AG, where it had been initially synthesized the previous year and assigned the identifier HF-1854. — Encyclopedia Britannica, 7 Oct. 2026 And somewhere between having your Muse go and make Instagram for you, and Meta synthesizing all of the product recommendations and generating content all by itself, is a liability for Meta. — Nilay Patel, The Verge, 5 Oct. 2026 Scientists try to compute these wave functions before synthesizing and characterizing the molecules directly in the lab, so the labs can focus their resources on the most promising reactions. — Sophya Garashchuk, The Conversation, 1 Oct. 2026 Studies can come to different conclusions depending on how they’re designed—but, encouragingly, recent reviews synthesizing many different studies on GLP-1s like one in JAMA Psychiatry have generally not found reason for alarm. — Jamie Ducharme, Bon Appetit Magazine, 30 Sep. 2026 See All Example Sentences for synthesize

Word History

First Known Use

1830, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of synthesize was in 1830

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Cite this Entry

“Synthesize.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/synthesize. Accessed 14 Oct. 2026.

Kids Definition

synthesized; synthesizing
: to combine or produce by synthesis

Medical Definition

synthesize

transitive verb
syn·​the·​size
variants also British synthesise
synthesized also British synthesised; synthesizing also British synthesising
: to combine or produce by synthesis
synthesize penicillin

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