personify
Americanverb (used with object)
-
personifies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
personified,
past participle, past
-
personifying
present participle
-
to attribute human nature or character to (an inanimate object or an abstraction), as in speech or writing.
-
to represent (a thing or abstraction) in the form of a person, as in art.
-
to embody (a quality, idea, etc.) in a real person or a concrete thing.
-
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
-
to personate.
verb
-
to attribute human characteristics to (a thing or abstraction)
-
to represent (an abstract quality) in human or animal form
-
(of a person or thing) to represent (an abstract quality), as in art or literature
-
to be the embodiment of
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
personifysimple
-
personifiessimple
-
have personifiedperfect
-
has personifiedperfect
-
am personifyingprogressive
-
are personifyingprogressive
-
is personifyingprogressive
-
have been personifyingperfect progressive
-
has been personifyingperfect progressive
Past
-
personifiedsimple
-
had personifiedperfect
-
was personifyingprogressive
-
were personifyingprogressive
-
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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
What If It's Us
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Fablehaven
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Or do these émigrés personify a loss of faith in America’s future and way of life?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026
Some early depictions show voladores dressed as birds, perhaps to personify gods.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2023
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
Sohn borrowed an idea from his 2009 short “Partly Cloudy,” which included clouds as characters, to personify air that way.
From New York Times ● Jun. 20, 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
While Herman’s house is large by most standards, it personifies that same lack of ostentation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
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
But in some ways he personifies the late pontiff's legacy in his country.
From BBC ● May 7, 2025
Calliope, receiving the stylus and tablets from Apollo, personifies poetry and its rhythm; Polyhymnia, finger on lips, represents mime.
From An Autobiography by Igor Stravinsky
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
“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
Watching Alcaraz is, for the most part, like watching sunshine personified.
From BBC ● Feb. 1, 2026
Bardot starred in nearly 50 films including And God Created Woman and Contempt, setting fashion trends with her tousled blonde hair and bold eyeliner, before becoming the model for Marianne, the personified symbol of France.
From BBC ● Jan. 4, 2026
And she was beauty personified on the tennis courts.
From "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson
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
A compromise is therefore effected by personifying only the more graceful ones, like S and the lower-case f, and this means that a certain discrimination must be used in selecting the actors.
From Of All Things by Robert C. Benchley
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.
