EMBODIMENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does embodiment mean? 

• EMBODIMENT (noun)
  The noun EMBODIMENT has 3 senses:

1. a new personification of a familiar idea

2. a concrete representation of an otherwise nebulous concept

3. giving concrete form to an abstract concept

  Familiarity information: EMBODIMENT used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EMBODIMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A new personification of a familiar idea

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

avatar; embodiment; incarnation

Context example:

the very avatar of cunning

Hypernyms ("embodiment" is a kind of...):

personification (a person who represents an abstract quality)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "embodiment"):

deification (an embodiment of the qualities of a god)

reincarnation (embodiment in a new form (especially the reappearance or a person in another form))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A concrete representation of an otherwise nebulous concept

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

embodiment; shape

Context example:

a circle was the embodiment of his concept of life

Hypernyms ("embodiment" is a kind of...):

concrete representation; concretism (a representation of an abstract idea in concrete terms)

Derivation:

embody (represent or express something abstract in tangible form)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Giving concrete form to an abstract concept

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("embodiment" is a kind of...):

objectification (the act of representing an abstraction as a physical thing)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "embodiment"):

soul (the human embodiment of something)

incarnation; personification (the act of attributing human characteristics to abstract ideas etc.)

Derivation:

embody (represent in bodily form)

 Context examples 

A woman, in monkish precepts, had been the embodiment and concentration of what was dangerous and evil—a focus whence spread all that was to be dreaded and avoided.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"It can be considered an instance of 'embodiment' in which our brain interacts with our body."

(Our Weight Tells How We Assess Food, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

We have had some dramatic entrances and exits upon our small stage at Baker Street, but I cannot recollect anything more sudden and startling than the first appearance of Thorneycroft Huxtable, M.A., Ph.D., etc. His card, which seemed too small to carry the weight of his academic distinctions, preceded him by a few seconds, and then he entered himself—so large, so pompous, and so dignified that he was the very embodiment of self-possession and solidity.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I do not think that the best embodiment of chivalry, the realization of the handsomest and most romantic figure ever imagined by painter, could have said this, with a more impressive and affecting dignity than the plain old Doctor did.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Never did tombs look so ghastly white; never did cypress, or yew, or juniper so seem the embodiment of funereal gloom; never did tree or grass wave or rustle so ominously; never did bough creak so mysteriously; and never did the far-away howling of dogs send such a woeful presage through the night.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)