embody
Americanverb (used with object)
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to give a concrete form to; express, personify, or exemplify in concrete form.
to embody an idea in an allegorical painting.
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to provide with a body incarnate; make corporeal.
to embody a spirit.
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to collect into or include in a body; organize; incorporate.
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to embrace or comprise.
verb
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to give a tangible, bodily, or concrete form to (an abstract concept)
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to be an example of or express (an idea, principle, etc), esp in action
his gentleness embodies a Christian ideal
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(often foll by in) to collect or unite in a comprehensive whole, system, etc; comprise; include
all the different essays were embodied in one long article
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to invest (a spiritual entity) with a body or with bodily form; render incarnate
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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embodysimple
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embodiessimple
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have embodiedperfect
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has embodiedperfect
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am embodyingprogressive
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are embodyingprogressive
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is embodyingprogressive
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have been embodyingperfect progressive
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has been embodyingperfect progressive
Past
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embodiedsimple
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had embodiedperfect
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was embodyingprogressive
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were embodyingprogressive
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had been embodyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of embody
Explanation
To embody a role is to fill it completely. If a high schooler seems to embody the character of Macbeth, his performance might make the audience forget they're watching a dorky 15-year-old with braces. If you embody someone, you put him or her "in-body," as when an actor gives a complete and compelling representation of a character. You can also use embody to describe character traits you see in a person, like, “He embodies truth,” or, “She is the embodiment of goodness.”
Vocabulary lists containing embody
100 SAT Words Beginning with "E"
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Vocabulary from "Stop Expecting Games to Build Empathy" by Julie Muncy
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Content Summary G.2: Regionalization
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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:
But relief is coming for the upwards of 250,000 people from all over the world who attend the WCS every year to embody manga, animation or video game characters.
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
They spent more than $3 million transforming the fixer-upper into a home with custom details, moody interiors and four fountains that embody the charm of historic Charleston.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
Part of a year-long world tour, Juria says the concerts "will truly embody the album's title. Our core will be right there on stage".
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2026
Being able to embody her, that approach and attitude towards it, is something that’s quite interesting to me.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026
Well-known quotations embody both of these things: they come with the imprimatur both of ancient derivation, and of the many people who, by passing it on, in some way are understood to have endorsed it.
From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith
“This extraordinary residence represents the culmination of that passion: a Napa-inspired estate that embodies everything she loved most about residential design,” the listing goes on.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 2026
Deeply influenced by his Cuban grandfather, Rubio says he embodies the American dream.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
In a nicely balanced performance, Alejandra Villanueva’s Mistress Quickly, the play’s go-between and overseer of mischief, embodies the free and easy spirit of Simon’s production.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
"Alexia Putellas embodies the pinnacle of talent, dedication and vision in women's football," said Kang.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
In environmental terms, Thoreau, who saw the landscape as imbued with an essential wildness that could be heedlessly destroyed, embodies physis.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Finally, we offer this series as a provocation: So many of you have spent the past year attending No Kings protests, at which you embodied, physically, what it means to reject monarchical power.
From Slate ● Jul. 20, 2026
But Bardem’s Max is a different breed of psychopath from those previously embodied by Roberts DeNiro and Mitchum.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2026
The live-wire wit and idiosyncratic verve that she embodied in “Reds” and “Something’s Gotta Give” are very much on display here.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
Unlike AI, we understand ourselves through our relations with one another and, crucially, through our embodied experience.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
Call it yet another contradiction that my parents embodied.
From "Confessions of a Murder Suspect" by James Patterson
Nearly half of the U.S. soccer players who made an inspiring run to the World Cup round of 16 are dual-nationals, embodying the American dream on the Fourth of July.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 5, 2026
“This union of artistry and vision transformed the property into a singular masterpiece, embodying the glamour and creative force of Hollywood’s Golden Age,” the description goes on.
From MarketWatch ● May 19, 2026
Webb did so by embodying professional excellence, constructing his cases with analytical rigor, painstaking research, and courage.
From Barron's ● Apr. 7, 2026
The hive mind is one of genre fiction’s most reliably unsettling tropes, embodying our native fear of being overwhelmed by a force organized around a singular purpose.
From Salon ● Dec. 29, 2025
Curiously, though, environmentalists also describe Native American history as embodying precisely the opposite lesson: how to live in a spiritual balance with Nature.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
