personify
Give human form
To personify something is to represent it as a human figure or give it human qualities.
Death personified appears as a cloaked skeleton; justice personified is a blindfolded woman with scales.
Writers personify abstract things when they give them human traits: The wind whispered through the trees.
Someone can also personify a quality by embodying it completely: She personifies elegance.
Make more relatable
- animateGive life to
- anthropomorphizeAscribe human characteristics to
- attributeQuality assigned to something
- ascribeAttribute to a cause
impute · endow · bestow · confer · allegorize · figurative · project · imbue
Represent the essence of
- exemplifyRepresent through instance
- manifestClearly apparent or displayed
- typifyEmbody characteristic traits
- representStand in for
incarnate · embody · embodiment · express · mirror · reflect · encapsulate · capture
Represent through performance
- enactPass into law
- playRecreation or staged drama
- actDeed or performance
- embodyExpress through physical form
inhabit · channel · depict · represent · capture · interpret · convey · theatrical
Symbolic tale with deeper meaning
- metaphorImplied identity comparison
- emblemRepresentational sign or device
- iconPictorial screen symbol
- representStand in for
signify · symbol · figurative · stand-in · proxy · avatar · mascot · totem
humanize
Make more relatable
- animateGive life to
- anthropomorphizeAscribe human characteristics to
- attributeQuality assigned to something
ascribe · impute · endow · bestow · confer · allegorize · figurative · project · imbue · characterize
epitomize
Represent the essence of
- exemplifyRepresent through instance
- manifestClearly apparent or displayed
- typifyEmbody characteristic traits
represent · incarnate · embody · embodiment · express · mirror · reflect · encapsulate · capture · define
portray
Represent through performance
embody · inhabit · channel · depict · represent · capture · interpret · convey · theatrical · performance
allegory
Symbolic tale with deeper meaning
represent · signify · symbol · figurative · stand-in · proxy · avatar · mascot · totem · badge
protagonist
Story's central figure
- heroOne admired for courage
- villainWicked story antagonist
- antagonistOne who opposes another
narrator · archetype · avatar · alter-ego · caricature · foil · antihero · fictional · portrayal · role
- representrepresent, stand for, symbolize, embody, epitomize
- communicateexpress, convey, communicate, tell, share
- showingshow, displaying, display, exhibiting, demonstrate
- take onhire, employ, recruit, accept, assume
- writing verbsnarrate, describe, recount, chronicle, transcribe
- linking verbsbe, am, is, are, was
personifydisembody
Remove from corporeal existence
abstract · depersonalize · dematerialize · etherealize · spiritualize
personifyobjectify
Treat as mere thing
dehumanize · depersonalize · mechanize · reify · commodify
personifycontradict
Dispute a statement
oppose · belie · contravene · differ · negate
personification, personifies, personified, personifying, personifications