PERSONIFICATION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does personification mean? 

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

1. a person who represents an abstract quality

2. representing an abstract quality or idea as a person or creature

3. the act of attributing human characteristics to abstract ideas etc.

  Familiarity information: PERSONIFICATION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PERSONIFICATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who represents an abstract quality

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Context example:

she is the personification of optimism

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

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

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

avatar; embodiment; incarnation (a new personification of a familiar idea)

queen (something personified as a woman who is considered the best or most important of her kind)

Derivation:

personify (invest with or as with a body; give body to)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Representing an abstract quality or idea as a person or creature

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

personification; prosopopoeia

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

figure; figure of speech; image; trope (language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense)

Derivation:

personify (invest with or as with a body; give body to)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of attributing human characteristics to abstract ideas etc.

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

incarnation; personification

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

embodiment (giving concrete form to an abstract concept)

Derivation:

personify (attribute human qualities to something)

 Context examples 

He symbolised it, was its personification: so that when they showed their teeth to him they were defending themselves against the powers of destruction that lurked in the shadows of the forest and in the dark beyond the camp-fire.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The Press and the Public are but vague personifications for me, and I must thank them in vague terms; but my Publishers are definite: so are certain generous critics who have encouraged me as only large-hearted and high-minded men know how to encourage a struggling stranger; to them, i.e., to my Publishers and the select Reviewers, I say cordially, Gentlemen, I thank you from my heart.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)