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personification

noun

Simple meaning

A literary device in which an inanimate object or an idea is given human qualities.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

persahnuhfuhkayshuhn

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

pɚsɑnəfəˈkeɪʃən

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A literary device in which an inanimate object or an idea is given human qualities.

  2. The act of attributing human characteristics to abstract ideas etc.

  3. An artistic representation of an abstract quality as a human

  4. A person who represents an abstract quality

    “She is the personification of optimism.”

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

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Frequency
Rare

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A literary device in which an inanimate object or an idea is given human qualities.

Used this way, personification is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in literature or storytelling contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

  • Literature/storytelling

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use personification

  • “She is the personification of optimism.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

female personificationmere personificationliving personificationpersonification allegory

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.