Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To ascribe human characteristics to.
- v. To ascribe human characteristics to things not human.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To invest with human qualities.
Wiktionary
- v. To endow with human qualities.
- v. To attribute human characteristics to something that is non-human.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To attribute a human form or personality to.
WordNet 3.0
- v. ascribe human features to something
Examples
“Creative Power -- to, in short, anthropomorphize it, or reduce it to some such character as that borne by the ordinary proceedings of mankind.”
“Norman (2004, 138) stresses that people anthropomorphize, that is, project human emotions and beliefs into anything, animate or not.”
“We do not "anthropomorphize" our digestion any more than we anthropomorphize furnaces with thermostats.”
“That said, when the pejorative "anthropomorphize" is generically applied to studies that document commonalities between the emotional/cognitive responses of non-human and human animals, I suspect it often comes from persons who are not comfortable regarding themselves as animals.”
“Maltheism, of course, has a long and rich history through dystheism, misotheism, theodicy, dualism, and fideism, due largely to the fact that religious authors through the ages have taken great pains to unapologetically anthropomorphize their gods in all the worst ways possible.”
“Would it be against "critical thinking" or even science to anthropomorphize to that extent if a manuscript were found on Mars or SETI were to send us instructions on how to make a time machine?”
“While it's easy to anthropomorphize the behavior of wild animals and make value judgments based on our own human sense of morality, the reality is that such notions are completely irrelevant to the natural world.”
The Huffington Post: David Mizejewski: Newt Kills Frog With Chemical Warfare
“Synopsis: The “cynical gag” manga and anime take the archetypal characteristics of about 20 countries and regions, and anthropomorphize them as (mostly) bishōnen characters.”
“Anyone else still secretly anthropomorphize toys or stuffed animals as an adult?”
'Toy Story' director John Lasseter hawks toys...in the most pleasant way | EW.com
“Some people might argue that I anthropomorphize animals, but I reject this.”
The Huffington Post: Stephanie J. Stiavetti: Holly Heyser: The Philosophical Huntress
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘anthropomorphize’.
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Language
word, sentence, novel, book, novella, vignette, memoir, anthology, paragraph, stanza, poem, haiku and 123 more...
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allover
reintegrate, spight, surveillant, harmonize, Colophon, workplace, bigoted, unsighted, bridgework, salutation, voltmeter, octane and 159 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Poetry Terms
April is National Poetry Month. Add your favorite poetry terms to this new list!
alliteration, anapest, alexandrine, caesura, assonance, ballad, blank verse, iamb, conceit, couplet, consonance, dactyl and 30 more...
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Lifehacking
Start with the effect, the what; signal-patch known-belief spirit. "Write my program, routine me." New cue vs brand loyalty. Ritual Ceremony Design Technologies, Inc.
confusion, misdirection, fractionation, disequilibrium, relaxation, repetition, impassioned, intensity, suddenly, shock, concentration, focus and 118 more...
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ICE
quincunx, adoxography, panjundrum, breloque, surd, scripturient, rousant, favrile, embouchure, aquarelle, griffonage, sussultatory and 234 more...
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kringlan's Words
fecund, riposte, nebbish, nonpareil, deign, eschew, imbroglio, spelunking, fop, foofaraw, tundra, talon and 128 more...
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List Erine
cool mint antiseptic
shalom, cattywampus, bourgeoisie, aerophile, traverse, grotto, epicurean, ex cathedra, nautilus, epitaph, lathe, continuum and 753 more...
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dyy's Words
ambivalence, irony, double-edged sword, paradox, struggle, plunge, buoy, pigeon-hole, ultimately, status quo, fuel, undermine and 230 more...
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soph2's Words
serendipity, audacity, groak, petrichor, lethologica, loganamnosis, agnuopia, dysania, dysphagia, neologism, incredulity, harbinger and 246 more...
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Papageno's Words, Pt. I
hobbledehoy, absquatulate, chthonic, prolix, ululate, internecine, verisimilitude, animadversion, concupiscence, vertiginous, cucullate, lucubrate and 1554 more...
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Greg's Words
frippet, furtive, gimcrack, indefatigable, vicissitudes, pedant, ziggurat, susurrus, sub rosa, rodomontade, interregnum, abscise and 168 more...
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cozycowgirl's Words
perseverate, personification, wiggle, luscious, yar, onomatopoeia, tangecize, juncture, lyrical, hindsight, identify, usurp and 42 more...
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jerin's Words
ululating, puddle, whorl, huzzah, maharaja, mostaccioli, elizabethan, cat, felicitous, dystopian, larynx, pop and 35 more...
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Words to Encorporate into Speech
Just a few words to start using in every day speech to stimulate other people's brains.
habiliment, laud, insipid, depravity, reticent, disingenuous, germane, fulminant, dour, jimp, calumniate, disport and 24 more...
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rduke's Words
misguggle, ken, sere, etiolated, gelid, digladiate, popinjay, bathykolpian, conglaciation, hyperborean, callipygian, vagile and 1253 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for anthropomorphize.
bilby Is that like the Freemasons and goats? Jun 23, 2012
dailyword Captain Archer would do this to his dog, Porthos sometimes. Jun 23, 2012
dgstone Sadly, IQ testers are rarely as smart as the person reading the test results. A sane smart person rarely decides to do repetitious tasks like that if they can help it.
BTW, I exaggerated a bit. She wasn't completely speechless. She had the presence of mind to ask me how to spell it after a 30 second delay. *sigh*
Mar 14, 2008
seanahan That's what I call, Dropping the APM bomb Mar 14, 2008
skipvia Perhaps she should be looking for a new line of work... Mar 14, 2008
dgstone I dropped this bomb on my IQ tester. She was speechless.
Mar 13, 2008
uselessness It doesn't get much worse than seeing byte used as a verb in a lame, lame pun. Jun 26, 2007
reesetee Don't anthropomorphize computers; they hate that. Jun 26, 2007