Other Word Forms
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.
A man of good will wrestling with middle-aged angst, Artie is “in many ways, the embodiment of the American dream,” Strout tells us.
From Los Angeles Times • May 5, 2026
Once considered a canny innovator, and then, with his purchase of the flailing Washington Post, a white knight, he has since become the embodiment of capitalism run amok.
From Los Angeles Times • May 5, 2026
After the ghostly reflection of Frank Silva, a prop man, was inadvertently caught on camera, Lynch was inspired and cast Silva as the embodiment of insoluble evil.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026
But she will argue that "restoring order and control at our border is not a betrayal of Labour values, it is an embodiment of them".
From BBC • Mar. 4, 2026
That day, I felt myself to be the embodiment of African nationalism, the inheritor of Africa’s difficult but noble past and her uncertain future.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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.
