reify
UK/ˈɹiː.ə.faɪ/
reify verb: to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing.
Verb
reify (third-person singular simple present reifies, present participle reifying, simple past and past participle reified)
- To regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing.
- What I've always appreciated about this concept of coincidence ... is how it reifies our search for causality, our need to establish logical connections among disparate events.2024, Rachel Kushner, Creation Lake, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, page 349
- Synonyms:
- concretize, objectify, picture, thingify
reify meaning in Arabic
reify in Arabic
- to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
- جَسَّدَ jassada, جَسَّمَ jassama
Synonyms of reify
Forms of reify
| third-person singular present | reifies |
|---|---|
| present participle | reifying |
| past participle | reified |
| past | reified |
Origin of reify
Back-formation from reification, calque from German. Formed as Latin rēs (“thing”) + -ify (English suffix).
Words formed from reify
Questions about reify
- What does reify mean?
- Reify means to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing.
- What is reify in Arabic?
- Reify in Arabic is جَسَّدَ (jassada), جَسَّمَ (jassama). See Reify meaning in Arabic.
- What part of speech is reify?
- Reify is a verb.
- How do you pronounce reify?
- Reify is pronounced /ˈɹiː.ə.faɪ/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of reify?
- The past tense of reify is reified.
Words near reify in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: reify (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-reify.ogg.
Cite this entry: “reify.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/reify. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.