personification

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Etymology

personify +‎ -ication.

Noun

personification (countable and uncountable, plural personifications)

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

   Adolf Hitler was the personification of anti-Semitism.

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

   The writer used personification to convey her ideas.

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

   The Grim Reaper is a personification of death.

Translations

person, thing or name typifying a certain quality or idea

• Arabic: تجسيد‏‎ m
• Catalan: personificació (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 擬人 (zh), 拟人 (zh) (nǐrén)

• Danish: personificering c
• Dutch: personificatie f
• Finnish: henkilöitymä (fi)
• French: personnification (fr) f
• Georgian: გაპიროვნება (gaṗirovneba), პერსონიფიკაცია (ṗersonipiḳacia)
• German: Personifizierung (de) f
• Greek: προσωποποίηση (el) f (prosopopoíisi)
• Indonesian: personifikasi (id)
• Japanese: 擬人化 (ja) (gijinka)

• Malay: personifikasi
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: personifikasjon m

  Nynorsk: personifikasjon m, personifisering f

• Papiamentu: personificacion
• Polish: uosobienie (pl) n, personifikacja (pl) f
• Portuguese: personificação (pt) f
• Russian: олицетворе́ние (ru) n (olicetvorénije), воплоще́ние (ru) n (voploščénije)
• Serbo-Croatian: personifikacija (sh) f
• Spanish: personificación (es) f
• Swedish: personifikation (sv) c
• Turkish: tecessüm (tr)

literary device

• Catalan: personificació (ca) f, prosopopeia (ca) f
• Czech: personifikace f, zosobnění n
• Danish: personificering c
• Finnish: henkilöinti (fi), personifikaatio (fi)
• German: Personbildung f, Personendichtung f, Personifikation (de) f, Prosopopöie, Personifizierung (de) f
• Polish: personifikacja (pl) f, uosobienie (pl) n
• Portuguese: personificação (pt) f

• Russian: персонифика́ция (ru) f (personifikácija)
• Serbo-Croatian: personifikacija (sh) f
• Spanish: personificación (es) f, prosopopeya (es) f
• Swedish: personifikation (sv) c
• Tagalog: sadiwantao
• Turkish: tecessüm (tr)

artistic representation of an abstract quality as a human

• Catalan: personificació (ca) f
• Danish: personificering c
• Finnish: henkilöitymä (fi)
• German: Personifizierung (de) f
• Italian: personificazione (it) f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: personifikasjon m

  Nynorsk: personifikasjon m, personifisering f

• Polish: uosobienie (pl) n
• Portuguese: personificação (pt) f
• Russian: персонифика́ция (ru) f (personifikácija)
• Serbo-Croatian: personifikacija (sh) f
• Spanish: personificación (es) f
• Turkish: tecessüm (tr)