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Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of embodiment
Explanation
The embodiment of something gives concrete form to an abstract idea. A flag is the embodiment of a country. When you talk about embodiment, you're talking about giving a form to ideas that are usually not physical: like love, hate, fear, justice, etc. A gavel is the embodiment of justice; a wedding ring can be the embodiment of love. The word body in embodiment is a clue to its meaning: this is a word for giving a body to things that usually don't have one.
Vocabulary lists containing embodiment
The Crucible
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The Awakening
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The Boys in the Boat
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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:
“Latinos and Hispanics in South Texas are the embodiment of the American dream.”
From Slate ● Sep. 28, 2026
Rather, she’s the film’s embodiment of a lawful good, pre-programmed to fulfill her mission linearly without getting lost in the big, open world.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026
This morning, he’s in Manhattan’s Flatiron district, at the flagship store for On, the sleek Swiss apparel brand for whom he’s both an investor and spiritual embodiment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
The taco stand where Lopez and Diaz worked together was in some ways the embodiment of the American dream.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
Earnestly and expertly, he cast himself not as an outsider but rather as a literal embodiment of the American story.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Are the women in Vermeer’s light-filled interiors cryptic embodiments of Collegiant doctrine or secularized Jesuit motifs?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
"They're kind of 3D embodiments of the drawings, but they're produced independently."
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2025
There was a sense that it was kind of like no parents, no rules, and the companies were not structured like banks and law firms and these other embodiments of traditional corporate authority.
From Slate ● Jul. 30, 2023
You’ve seen them compete, these living breathing embodiments of strength and skill and athleticism.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2022
They are objective embodiments in words of feelings and moods of which the speaker himself is only partly conscious.
From Browning and the Dramatic Monologue by S. S. (Samuel Silas) Curry
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.
