Word.ws English Dictionary

imbody

imbody is the archaic form of embody.

Meaning of embody

Verb

embody (third-person singular simple present embodies, present participle embodying, simple past and past participle embodied)

  1. (transitive) To represent in a physical or concrete form; to incarnate or personify.
    • As the car salesman approached, wearing a plaid suit and slicked-back hair, he seemed to embody sleaze.
  2. (transitive) To represent in some other form, such as a code of laws.
    • The US Constitution aimed to embody the ideals of diverse groups of people, from Puritans to Deists.
  3. (transitive) To comprise or include as part of a cohesive whole; to be made up of.
    • A shunting locomotive embodying an unusual form of power transmission has been developed for the National Coal Board.1958 June, “N.C.B. Electrogyro Locomotive”, in Railway Magazine, page 421
  4. (intransitive) To unite in a body or mass.
    • Nay, my good friend—the people will remain / Embodied peaceably, till Parliament / Confirm the royal charter: tell your king so: / We will await the Charter's confirmation, / Meanwhile comporting ourselves orderly / As peaceful citizens, not risen in tumult, / But to redress their evils.1794, Robert Southey, Wat Tyler. A Dramatic Poem. In Three Acts, London: J[ohn] M‘Creery, […] for Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, […], published 1817, →OCLC, Act III, pages 55–56
    Synonyms:
    fuse

Forms of imbody

third-person singular presentimbodies
present participleimbodying
past participleimbodied
pastimbodied

Origin of imbody

See embody.

Words formed from imbody

Questions about imbody

What is imbody the archaic form of?
Imbody is the archaic form of embody.

Words near imbody in the dictionary

  1. imbo
  2. Imboden
  3. Imbodens
  4. imbodied
  5. imbodies
  6. imbody
  7. imbodying
  8. imboil
  9. imboiled
  10. imboiling
  11. imboils

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: imbody (page history and authors); embody (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: “imbody.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/imbody. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.