personify
Americanverb (used with object)
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to attribute human nature or character to (an inanimate object or an abstraction), as in speech or writing.
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to represent (a thing or abstraction) in the form of a person, as in art.
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to embody (a quality, idea, etc.) in a real person or a concrete thing.
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to be an embodiment or incarnation of; typify.
He personifies the ruthless ambition of some executives.
The vicar's wife was grace and beauty personified.
- Synonyms:
- incorporate, exemplify, represent
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to personate.
verb
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to attribute human characteristics to (a thing or abstraction)
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to represent (an abstract quality) in human or animal form
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(of a person or thing) to represent (an abstract quality), as in art or literature
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to be the embodiment of
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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personifysimple
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personifiessimple
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have personifiedperfect
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has personifiedperfect
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am personifyingprogressive
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are personifyingprogressive
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is personifyingprogressive
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have been personifyingperfect progressive
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has been personifyingperfect progressive
Past
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personifiedsimple
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had personifiedperfect
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was personifyingprogressive
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were personifyingprogressive
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had been personifyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of personify
First recorded in 1720–30; person + -ify; compare French personnifier, Italian personificare
Explanation
To personify is to give something lifeless human-like qualities — like when Emily Dickinson wrote, "Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me..." You can also use the verb personify to show one person embodying another, like an actor attempting to personify Abraham Lincoln in a play about the former president. A person can also personify a value or emotion, as when the founder of a charitable organization is said to personify generosity and selflessness. When you add the suffix -ify (meaning "to make") to a noun, you "verbify" that noun. So personify means "to make into a person."
Vocabulary lists containing personify
Power Suffix: -fy
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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:
In his studied inscrutability Warsh was emulating his role model and the man who came to personify what it means to be a central banker.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
Senior voices in government counter that Starmer and Reeves personify the modern Labour Party in government.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2025
They personify intangibles that sabermetrics can never quantify and that fans yearn to encounter: Hope.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2024
Of one starved survivor who wept before him, Kissinger reflected: “Human dignity, objective values have stopped at this barbed wire”—but “as long as conscience exists as a conception in this world you will personify it.”
From Slate ● Nov. 30, 2023
It was an even more obvious metaphor for Christians, as it was easy to think of God as a legislator imposing laws on nature and to personify nature as obeying him.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
And yet, for some reason, it is the band’s rhythm guitarist who personifies immortality.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 11, 2025
In his maqāma, Ibn al-Wardi personifies the plague as a mischievous wanderer who brings death to one region after another over a 15-year journey.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 11, 2025
“The shadow personifies everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge about himself,” Jung wrote.
From Slate ● Apr. 27, 2025
The award, introduced in 2023, is intended to reward an individual who most personifies the "spirit of Glasgow".
From BBC ● Mar. 30, 2025
At the time of marriage the husband or wife must take the name of the heir or heiress who marries and personifies the property.
From The Truth About Woman by Hartley, C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine)
Like her, Uncle Sam personified American ideals and was popularized in the 19th century as the nation developed its own identity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026
Through her, Maddy personified a new kind of Latina baddie — one who defied constraints, and carried herself with a confidence that asked the rest of the world to meet her on her terms.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026
Carlo Ancelotti was coolness personified, and no wonder all his players love him - he is a great football man and human being.
From BBC ● May 15, 2026
“Unfortunately, but predictably, it was at the expense of signaling that Lululemon was no longer the leading, premium, cool brand initially personified by its muse.”
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 29, 2026
Literally, I take a two-second photograph, and now I’m obstruction personified.
From "What If It's Us" by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
There’s an obvious objection to all this: It sounds as if we’re naively personifying a giant math problem, mistaking statistical patterns for sentience—falling for the oldest anthropomorphic error in the book.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 25, 2025
Beatriz plays with a spectrum that wasn’t available to her as Rosa Diaz in “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” personifying the balance Schur and his writers strike between serious matters and laughter.
From Salon ● Nov. 21, 2024
Directed by artistic director Mathew Wright, the solo performance features Alcalá personifying four nurses and a respiratory therapist, using their words, verbatim, about working during the COVID-19 pandemic.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 20, 2023
On the other side of town is another, equally imposing statue personifying the Italian stonemasons who also brought their skills to Barre.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 16, 2022
Ah! 'tis bitter warfare when a man contends with Hope!—when he sees her, with little aid from the personifying influence, as a thing distinct from himself—a lying spirit that comes to flatter and deceive him.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume I Historical, Traditionary, and Imaginative by Various
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.
