anthropomorphize

American  

[an-thruh-puh-mawr-fahyz] / ˌæn θrə pəˈmɔr faɪz /

especially British, anthropomorphise

verb (used with or without object)

anthropomorphized, anthropomorphizing

1. to ascribe human form or attributes to (an animal, plant, material object, etc.).

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anthropomorphize British  

/ ˌænθrəpəˈmɔːfaɪz /

verb

1. to attribute or ascribe human form or behaviour to (a god, animal, object, etc)

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Other Word Forms

• anthropomorphization
  noun

Etymology

Origin of anthropomorphize

First recorded in 1835–45; anthropomorph(ic) ( def. ) + -ize

Explanation

When you talk about a thing or animal as if it were human, you're anthropomorphizing it. The Easter Bunny is an anthropomorphized rabbit. People anthropomorphize all the time. If you've ever seen a dog in a sweater, that's a small case of an owner anthropomorphizing his pet. A cartoon dog who talks is a bigger case of anthropomorphizing. Shel Silverstein's book The Giving Tree anthropomorphizes the tree — the tree acts as if it were a person. It may seem kind of bizarre, but treating non-human things as human is a way of imagining another point of view.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

anthropomorphize anthropomorphized anthropomorphizing

"Even the instances that did anthropomorphize AI varied widely in strength."

From Science Daily ● Apr. 19, 2026

People who were lonelier were both more likely to interact with AI, and more likely to anthropomorphize it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026

It's a natural human tendency to anthropomorphize other species, and, according to Darwin, there is something shared between all of us — even if it traces back tens of millions of years ago.

From Salon ● May 12, 2025

“I started thinking about how to include my coping mechanisms and make everyone a character and kind of anthropomorphize my brain.”

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 25, 2024

Charles was always one to anthropomorphize creatures, seeds, rocks even, and could be overheard talking to them as if they understood.

From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman

Could my beloved Pixar, which had already anthropomorphized so many things, really make something so upsetting and perplexing, and on so many levels?

From Salon ● Jun. 6, 2026

Eventually, he finds himself inside a barn with anthropomorphized hay and other frights.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026

Instead, Gallrein simply functioned as an anthropomorphized biography.

From Slate ● May 19, 2026

Meanwhile, two other notable releases took anthropomorphized animals down very different paths: The French-Spanish “Robot Dreams” and the American “Migration.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2023

Such animal-gods are not anthropomorphized in early times.

From The Next Step in Religion An Essay toward the Coming Renaissance by Sellars, Roy Wood

She calls the chatbot “it” but says she also finds anthropomorphizing the model helpful for her work.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 9, 2026

"This can lead to embarrassing mistakes, and for journalists to feed into the hype machine, by, for example, anthropomorphizing AI technologies, and mythologizing tech companies."

From BBC ● Mar. 13, 2024

Zoe is known for anthropomorphizing Rocco, who is simply an inanimate geological object.

From Salon ● Feb. 3, 2024

I know that scientists would warn me off anthropomorphizing nature and its creatures, surrendering objectivity and good sense.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 25, 2023

You may see imaginative children every day anthropomorphizing in this way, and the dupes of that super-abundant vitality in themselves, which bestows qualities proper to itself on everything about them.

From Among My Books First Series by Lowell, James Russell