One way to hold this word: something is in a liquid, spread so thin that you cannot see it at all. The liquid cools, or the water dries away, and the hidden stuff starts to gather. Slowly it comes together into small solid pieces with flat faces that you can point at, pick up and count. Nothing new arrived — what was already there simply took a shape.
From the word’s history
From crystal + -ize, literally 'to turn into crystal'. Crystal itself goes back to Ancient Greek κρύσταλλος, ice or clear stone; the double l keeps the Latin crystallus spelling.
crystallize 是 crystal（結晶、水晶）加上 -ize（使變成…），字面就是「使變成結晶」。crystal 更早來自希臘文 κρύσταλλος，原指冰或像冰一樣透明的石頭；中間兩個 l 是跟著拉丁文 crystallus 的拼法留下來的。所以核心畫面本來就寫在字的組成裡。
Wiktionary 'crystallize' etymology (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1052784122:26330), supplied in this packet
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
crystallizeverb/ˈkɹɪstəlaɪz/
- 1
chemistrynatural-sciencesphysical-sciencesTo make something form into crystals.
- I crystallized the copper sulfate by slowly cooling a saturated solution.
- 2
To assume a crystalline form.
- The copper sulphate crystallized from solution.
- 3
To give a definite or precise form to (something).
- After some thought, I crystallized my ideas for the paper.
- Two events from the past week help crystallize this strange, contradictory moment for the U.S. economy.
- 4
To take a definite form.
- My ideas crystallized overnight.
- The situation did crystallize, if painfully, under the stars, and by morning each knew what he must confess.
- 5
To coat something with crystals, especially with sugar.
- We crystallized the fruit by coating in sugar.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。