MATERIALIZED

Materialized is the past participle of the verb materialize, and functions as an adjective or verb form in English. It denotes something that has been converted into matter or made tangible, real, or concrete. In everyday usage, ideas, plans, or events may be described as materialized when they have been realized or enacted.

In computing, materialized has a specialized sense. A materialized view is a database object that stores the results of a query physically on disk or in memory. This contrasts with a regular view, which is simply a stored query definition executed when referenced. Materialized views speed up read-heavy workloads, especially for complex joins or aggregations, at the cost of extra storage and the need to refresh to stay up to date. Refresh strategies include complete refresh and incremental/fast refresh, as well as on-demand refresh. Some systems support automatic scheduling of refreshes.

The term is also used in other fields to describe the appearance of something in the real world. In philosophy and speculative contexts, materialization can refer to the process by which something abstract or potential gains concrete form, or to the manifestation of a concept, plan, or phenomenon in physical reality. The usage is largely metaphorical outside technical contexts.

Related terms include materialize, materialization, and materialized view.