personification
personification Lexical Profile
personification Game Scores & Validity
• noun
The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.
"The poet used personification to describe the autumn wind as a restless wanderer knocking at the door."
A person, animal, or object regarded as the perfect embodiment or typification of a quality or concept.
"With her calm demeanor under pressure, the veteran pilot was the very personification of composure."
Word Nuance & Usage
In literary analysis, personification is often distinguished from anthropomorphism: personification applies figurative human traits to non-human things in brief imagery (such as 'the wind whispered'), whereas anthropomorphism makes non-human beings literally behave and speak like humans throughout a story.
• Rhymes for personification
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in the mid-18th century from the verb 'personify' (from French 'personnifier'), ultimately rooted in the Latin 'persona' (meaning an actor's mask or character) combined with '-ficare' (to make).