verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To endow with human qualities. transitive
2. 2
   ascribe human features to something wordnet
3. 3
   To attribute human-like characteristics to (something that is non-human). transitive

   "Bonnie Lucas further anthropomorphizes the flower in her watercolors, combining it surreally with the human female figure[…]"

Synonyms

All synonyms

anthropomorphisecivilizepersonalize

Example

More examples

"People who do not have children tend to anthropomorphize their pets."

Etymology

By surface analysis, anthropo- + morph + -ize.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.