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

They personify intangibles that sabermetrics can never quantify and that fans yearn to encounter: Hope.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 23, 2024

Shows like Auction Hunters, Storage Hunters, and Storage Wars began to personify the old saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”—except with objects of value, monetary or sentimental, on the line.

From Slate • Aug. 5, 2024

Finding equivalent candidates who can personify outrage about the Middle East with the longevity, potency and profile of Mr Galloway will be very difficult indeed.

From BBC • Mar. 1, 2024

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

Related Words

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