Personification

//pɚˌsɑ.nə.fəˈkeɪ.ʃən// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person, thing, or name typifying a certain quality or idea; an embodiment or exemplification. countable

    "Adolf Hitler was the personification of anti-Semitism."

  2. 2
    the act of attributing human characteristics to abstract ideas etc. wordnet
  3. 3
    An artistic representation of an abstract quality as a human. countable

    "The Grim Reaper is a personification of death."

  4. 4
    representing an abstract quality or idea as a person or creature wordnet
  5. 5
    The process of creating such a representation: a literary device or other artistic method in which an inanimate object or an idea is given human qualities. uncountable, usually

    "You might search in vain if you go looking for personification in his works: his style was very concrete."

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    a person who represents an abstract quality wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
actingapingcharacterizationcorporealizationdumb showembodiment

Example

More examples

"He is the personification of selfishness."

Etymology

From person(ify) + -ification.

Related phrases

literary device

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