If a number is annualized, someone has turned a shorter stretch of time into a “for one year” figure. A shop’s sales for one month, a fund’s return for three months, a worker’s pay for ten weeks — you treat that pace as if it lasted a whole year, so you can compare things that were measured on different clocks. Banks, funds, and news use this a lot. Though actually, an annualized number is a calculation, not a promise. If you earned one percent in a month, the annualized figure can look large, but you may not earn that every month. How they do the math also matters: some just multiply by twelve; some use compound interest, where each bit grows on the last bit. When you see “annualized return,” ask two quiet questions: over what stretch, and by what method? It is a money-and-statistics word, not everyday talk, and it is not the same as annual, which simply means “once a year.”