personify

American  

[per-son-uh-fahy] / pərˈsɒn əˌfaɪ /

verb (used with object)

personified, personifying

1. to attribute human nature or character to (an inanimate object or an abstraction), as in speech or writing.

2. to represent (a thing or abstraction) in the form of a person, as in art.

3. to embody (a quality, idea, etc.) in a real person or a concrete thing.

4. 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

5. to personate.

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personify British  

/ pɜːˈsɒnɪˌfaɪ /

verb

1. to attribute human characteristics to (a thing or abstraction)

2. to represent (an abstract quality) in human or animal form

3. (of a person or thing) to represent (an abstract quality), as in art or literature

4. to be the embodiment of

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Other Word Forms

• personifiable adjective
• personifiant adjective
• personifier noun
• unpersonifying adjective

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."

Example Sentences

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

Those who seek to govern us seek too to attempt to personify – however imperfectly – the country they seek to lead.

From BBC • May 28, 2024

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

But when they told of the coming of love and light the early storytellers were setting the scene for the appearance of mankind, and they began to personify more precisely.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

Related Words

• act out
• embody
• epitomize
• exemplify
• illustrate
• incarnate
• manifest
• symbolize
• typify