anthropomorphize

English

Alternative forms

• anthropomorphise (non-Oxford British spelling)

Verb

anthropomorphize (third-person singular simple present anthropomorphizes, present participle anthropomorphizing, simple past and past participle anthropomorphized)

1. (transitive) To endow with human qualities.
2. (transitive) To attribute human characteristics to (something that is non-human).
   • 2018 June 15, Emma Brockes, “No, Facebook, I won’t be back. I’ve seen the dangers of habitual sharing”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     It has been two months since I last checked my feed, during which time Facebook has sent me notifications I didn't sign up for, informing me every time someone posts, and invited me to attend locally organised focus groups. […] Of course, I am anthropomorphising a machine; no one is in charge of all this.

Related terms

Terms related to anthropomorphize

• anthropomorphic

• anthropomorphically

• anthropomorphism

• anthropomorphization

Translations

attribute human qualities

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 人格化 (zh) (réngéhuà), 擬人化, 拟人化 (nǐrénhuà)

• Dutch: antropomorfiseren (nl)
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: ihmisenkaltaistaa, antropomorfisoida
• French: anthropomorphiser (fr)
• German: vermenschlichen (de), anthropomorphisieren (de)

• Greek: ανθρωπομορφίζω (anthropomorfízo)
• Hebrew: להאניש‎‎
• Portuguese: antropomorfizar
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: antropomorfizar (es)