personify
Americanverb (used with object)
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personifies,
present (3rd person singular)
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personified,
past participle, past
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personifying
present participle
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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.
-
to embody (a quality, idea, etc.) in a real person or a concrete thing.
-
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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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personifysimple
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personifiessimple
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have personifiedperfect
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has personifiedperfect
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am personifyingprogressive
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are personifyingprogressive
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is personifyingprogressive
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have been personifyingperfect progressive
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has been personifyingperfect progressive
Past
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personifiedsimple
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had personifiedperfect
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was personifyingprogressive
-
were personifyingprogressive
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had been personifyingperfect progressive
Future
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.
See Examples For:
In his studied inscrutability Warsh was emulating his role model and the man who came to personify what it means to be a central banker.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
Senior voices in government counter that Starmer and Reeves personify the modern Labour Party in government.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2025
They personify intangibles that sabermetrics can never quantify and that fans yearn to encounter: Hope.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2024
For most of his life, the Rev. Dr. Norman Kansfield seemed to personify the Reformed Church in America.
From New York Times ● Apr. 30, 2024
To a greater or lesser degree, most members of the reporting team performed similar feats of tedious investigation before finding characters who would personify the statistical trends.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
A good story requires characters, and Mr. Kukushkin personifies atoms, chemicals, even entire biological kingdoms, using whimsical drama to illustrate fundamental principles of biochemistry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 13, 2025
In his maqāma, Ibn al-Wardi personifies the plague as a mischievous wanderer who brings death to one region after another over a 15-year journey.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 11, 2025
“The shadow personifies everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge about himself,” Jung wrote.
From Slate ● Apr. 27, 2025
I ask her what it best personifies about L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2024
Don Quixote is inexpressibly dear to us because he personifies the ridiculous tasks which we attempt, though we know them to be ridiculous.
From Mountain Meditations and some subjects of the day and the war by L. (Lizzy) Lind-af-Hageby
“Unfortunately, but predictably, it was at the expense of signaling that Lululemon was no longer the leading, premium, cool brand initially personified by its muse.”
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 29, 2026
Two adorable lovebirds—maximally adorable, as they are personified by two of our brightest stars, Zendaya and Robert Pattinson—are about to get married.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 2, 2026
The AI, meanwhile, is personified to the cast and crew, who know nothing about it, as someone named “Al,” who “works remotely.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2026
Cabello has personified Venezuela’s ruling socialist movement like few others.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 7, 2026
To them, a clean-living, hardworking farmer personified the ideal citizen.
From "Sterling Biographies®: Cleopatra: Egypt's Last and Greatest Queen" by Susan Blackaby
There’s an obvious objection to all this: It sounds as if we’re naively personifying a giant math problem, mistaking statistical patterns for sentience—falling for the oldest anthropomorphic error in the book.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 25, 2025
Beatriz plays with a spectrum that wasn’t available to her as Rosa Diaz in “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” personifying the balance Schur and his writers strike between serious matters and laughter.
From Salon ● Nov. 21, 2024
Directed by artistic director Mathew Wright, the solo performance features Alcalá personifying four nurses and a respiratory therapist, using their words, verbatim, about working during the COVID-19 pandemic.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 20, 2023
On the other side of town is another, equally imposing statue personifying the Italian stonemasons who also brought their skills to Barre.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 16, 2022
Whatever some of the Eclectic philosophers might have asserted, Plato considered that our ideas were derived from external objects, and never contemplated the extravagant doctrine of imbodying metaphysical abstractions, or personifying intellectual ideas.
From Curiosities of Medical Experience by J. G. (John Gideon) Millingen
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.
