vivify
Americanverb (used with object)
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to give life to; animate; quicken.
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to enliven; brighten; sharpen.
verb
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to bring to life; animate
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to make more vivid or striking
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of vivify
First recorded in 1535–45; late Middle English from Middle French vivifier from Late Latin vīvificāre ). See vivi-, -fy ( def. )
Explanation
When you vivify something, you bring new excitement or life to it. If you decide to liven up your boring apartment by painting the walls every color of the rainbow, you can say that you're trying to vivify your home. You might vivify your family's meals by experimenting with exotic spices or vivify your school by hiring circus performers to ride unicycles up and down the halls. The Latin root word of vivify is vivus, or "alive," which is also the origin of the closely related word vivid.
Vocabulary lists containing vivify
"Train Time," Vocabulary from the short story
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"Train Time" by D'Arcy McNickle
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This Week In Culture: March 7–13, 2020
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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:
Two moving and expansive books about enduring American symbols vivify abstract ideas through surprisingly specific images.
From New York Times ● Sep. 4, 2018
Words realize nothing; vivify nothing to you, unless you have suffered in your own person the thing which the words try to describe.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 3, 2018
He will vivify the church by creating a vacuum.
From Slate ● Jan. 12, 2017
Williams made a conscious decision to vivify the film with almost completely new thematic ideas.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2015
It is not to be denied that the writers of the Old Testament employ anthropomorphic language to vivify the justice and goodness of the Eternal.
From Modern Substitutes for Christianity by Pearson McAdam Muir
Elizabeth II’s 1953 coronation ceremony vivified for war-fatigued Britain the collective sentiments that make a community.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 8, 2022
However, the graceful Croatian was vivified into a grinding fightback in the second set, saving four break points and was one point away from levelling in the 10th game.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 28, 2018
Duncan MacMillan’s portrait of an actress and her addictions, vivified by a searing turn from Denise Gough, sobers up for the end of its run.
From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2017
In Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power, the eminent presidential historian Robert Dallek has deftly vivified the two practitioners of realpolitik and their world.
From Forbes ● Jun. 13, 2014
I believe she could even have vivified a leading article.
From Between the Dark and the Daylight by Richard Marsh
And as intent on vivifying culture as Bourdain was, I think he’d watch this movie and feel that there’s an authenticity that is deeply missed.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026
The city’s vivifying artistic production was put on the map.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2025
The vivifying dichotomy is even announced in advance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2025
But Gurnah avoids that misstep by gently vivifying the lives of a few African characters in all their rich humanity and even their comedy, without sentimentality or condescension.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 23, 2022
The air must contain the vivifying properties of its normal constitution, or it loses force, and death must ensue.
From Martyria or Andersonville Prison by Augustus C. Hamlin
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
