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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:
I was imagining what it would be like to be her, so perfectly balanced en pointe, the embodiment of feminine beauty and grace.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
And that makes Mayfield an embodiment of an uncomfortable decision teams around the league face about what to do with quarterbacks who are a cut below the game’s elite.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Comic Con, on the other hand, was the embodiment of the Kentucky motto.
From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2026
His passing skills are also somewhat underrated because he is the embodiment of a dribble-first winger.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
“You are the embodiment of selfishness,” she said.
From "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin
He added: "We should be proud to sit here as embodiments of the hereditary principle dating back a millennium."
From BBC ● Mar. 10, 2026
They are of the same era—fanciful and fantastical embodiments of the enterprise, leisure and sense of possibility America was placing on offer, despite the decade of Depression and war’s looming storm clouds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 14, 2026
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
Throughout the whole middle decades of the present age, the human mind in all its highest embodiments was eagerly searching, groping, and enquiring after a naturalistic explanation of the origin and progress of organic life.
From Charles Darwin by Grant Allen
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.
