personify
Americanverb (used with object)
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to attribute human nature or character to (an inanimate object or an abstraction), as in speech or writing.
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to represent (a thing or abstraction) in the form of a person, as in art.
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to embody (a quality, idea, etc.) in a real person or a concrete thing.
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to be an embodiment or incarnation of; typify.
He personifies the ruthless ambition of some executives.
The vicar's wife was grace and beauty personified.
- Synonyms:
- incorporate, exemplify, represent
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to personate.
verb
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to attribute human characteristics to (a thing or abstraction)
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to represent (an abstract quality) in human or animal form
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(of a person or thing) to represent (an abstract quality), as in art or literature
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to be the embodiment of
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of personify
First recorded in 1720–30; person + -ify; compare French personnifier, Italian personificare
Explanation
To personify is to give something lifeless human-like qualities — like when Emily Dickinson wrote, "Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me..." You can also use the verb personify to show one person embodying another, like an actor attempting to personify Abraham Lincoln in a play about the former president. A person can also personify a value or emotion, as when the founder of a charitable organization is said to personify generosity and selflessness. When you add the suffix -ify (meaning "to make") to a noun, you "verbify" that noun. So personify means "to make into a person."
Vocabulary lists containing personify
Power Suffix: -fy
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
That turned out to be Personify--somewhat to the shock of Anubis, which had been studying Personify as a potential chief rival.
From Time Magazine Archive
By last summer it had signed up 50 clients that were paying Personify about $6.2 million--and demanding more and different kinds of services than the company's 60 employees could supply.
From Time Magazine Archive
That, of course, frequently means mergers of direct competitors or potential competitors, like Personify and Anubis.
From Time Magazine Archive
Witness the just completed merger of Personify and Anubis, two California e-commerce companies.
From Time Magazine Archive
Personify the century,—talk of its present middle age,—of its youth,— and its adventures and prospects.
From Passages from the American Notebooks, Volume 2. by Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
