1. past tense of diagonalize; to transform a matrix into diagonal form, typically through a similarity transformation using eigenvectors and eigenvalues.
Usage: mathematics; linear algebra; technical

Examples

• The engineer diagonalized the covariance matrix to simplify the computation.
• Once we diagonalized the system, the differential equations became much easier to solve.
• The matrix was successfully diagonalized using its eigenvalues and eigenvectors.
• By diagonalizing the transformation, we reduced the problem to independent components.
• The algorithm diagonalized the symmetric matrix in polynomial time.