vivify

American  

[viv-uh-fahy] / ˈvɪv əˌfaɪ /

verb (used with object)

vivified, vivifying

1. to give life to; animate; quicken.

2. to enliven; brighten; sharpen.

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vivify British  

/ ˌvɪvɪfɪ'keɪʃən, ˈvɪvɪˌfaɪ /

verb

1. to bring to life; animate

2. to make more vivid or striking

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Other Word Forms

• vivification
  noun
• vivifier
  noun
• unvivified
  adjective

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

vivify vivified vivifying

The McBurneys here did much to vivify the drama, sometimes vaguely, sometimes, as in a Los Angeles film scene, overly specific.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2020

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

Love is but rarely a single-minded impulse; various other passions often contribute to suggest it and vivify it: vanity, avarice, sensuality, and ambition.

From Froth by Palacio Vald?s, Armando

Elizabeth II’s 1953 coronation ceremony vivified for war-fatigued Britain the collective sentiments that make a community.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 8, 2022

“But no film in which Cate Blanchett head-butts a vivified jack-o’-lantern could be entirely without merit.”

From New York Times ● Oct. 4, 2019

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

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

To have you in the midst of us! we clustered round you, shone upon, vivified, strengthened by your presence, surrounding you with an atmosphere of love & cheerful life.

From The Letters of Anne Gilchrist and Walt Whitman by Gilchrist, Anne Burrows

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

I would argue that interest has been subsequently cemented by the vivifying tensions between multiculturalism and white supremacy coursing through the art, which speaks so urgently to us today.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2022

These interpretations are vivifying and thoughtful, and a selection of pastel on paper works from 1975, collaborations between Mitchell and the poet James Schuyler, testify to the deep impact that poetry had on her painting.

From New York Times ● Sep. 2, 2021

Under the vivifying influence of this new system, mankind will be happy, perfectly happy; and until the auspicious day when the new order commences, this 'consummation so devoutly to be wished,' need not be anticipated.

From Memoir of John Howe Peyton in sketches by his contemporaries, together with some of his public and private letters, etc., also a sketch of Ann M. Peyton by Various