Word.ws English Dictionary

anthropomorphize

/ˌanθɹəpəˈmɔːfʌɪz/

anthropomorphize verb: to endow with human qualities.

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 ascribe human characteristics and behaviors to nonhuman entities.
    • Bonnie Lucas further anthropomorphizes the flower in her watercolors, combining it surreally with the human female figure[…]1988 January 15, Kathryn Hixson, “On Exhibit: a gallery full of flowers”, in Chicago Reader
    • A month away from twenty-six and there you are, in the middle of a Monday afternoon, genuinely engaged in the madcap antics of a slope-headed, claymated man and his anthropomorphized horse.1998, Paul McComas, Twenty Questions: A Collection of Short and Very Short Stories, Fithian Press, →ISBN, page 33

Forms of anthropomorphize

third-person singular presentanthropomorphizes
present participleanthropomorphizing
past participleanthropomorphized
pastanthropomorphized
alternative formanthropomorphise

Origin of anthropomorphize

By surface analysis, anthropo- + morph + -ize.

Words formed from anthropomorphize

Questions about anthropomorphize

What does anthropomorphize mean?
Anthropomorphize means to endow with human qualities.
What part of speech is anthropomorphize?
Anthropomorphize is a verb.
How do you pronounce anthropomorphize?
Anthropomorphize is pronounced /ˌanθɹəpəˈmɔːfʌɪz/.
What is the past tense of anthropomorphize?
The past tense of anthropomorphize is anthropomorphized.

Words near anthropomorphize in the dictionary

  1. anthropomorphitism
  2. anthropomorphitisms
  3. anthropomorphizable
  4. anthropomorphization
  5. anthropomorphizations
  6. anthropomorphize
  7. anthropomorphized
  8. anthropomorphizer
  9. anthropomorphizes
  10. anthropomorphizing
  11. anthropomorphological

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: anthropomorphize (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “anthropomorphize.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/anthropomorphize. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.