To vaporize means to turn from a liquid or solid into a gas or vapor. When water boils in a kettle, it vaporizes into steam. When you spill a few drops of water on a hot sidewalk in summer, the heat vaporizes them almost instantly: they disappear into the air as invisible water vapor.

The process happens when something gets hot enough that its molecules break free and float away as gas. Scientists use tools that vaporize tiny samples of materials so they can study what they're made of. In space, a meteor entering Earth's atmosphere moves so fast that friction heats it up and vaporizes it, creating a shooting star.

The word also appears in science fiction, where ray guns might vaporize targets, making them disappear completely. While real vaporization is usually just a change of state (solid to gas, or liquid to gas), in stories it often means something vanishes entirely, reduced to nothing but a puff of vapor or gas.

You might hear someone say a puddle vaporized in the sun, or that their savings vaporized when they spent too much. That second use is metaphorical: the money didn't actually turn to gas, but it disappeared just as completely.