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anthropomorphize

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To ascribe human characteristics to.
  • intransitive verb To ascribe human characteristics to things not human.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To invest with human qualities.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • verb To attribute a human form or personality to.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To endow with human qualities.
  • verb To attribute human characteristics to something that is non-human.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb ascribe human features to something

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Creative Power -- to, in short, anthropomorphize it, or reduce it to some such character as that borne by the ordinary proceedings of mankind.

    Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation Robert Chambers 1836

  • Norman (2004, 138) stresses that people anthropomorphize, that is, project human emotions and beliefs into anything, animate or not.

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows AnttiPitkanen 2009

  • We do not "anthropomorphize" our digestion any more than we anthropomorphize furnaces with thermostats.

    Minding the Brain Hacking, Ian 2004

  • 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.

    NPR Topics: News 2010

  • 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.

    David Mizejewski: Newt Kills Frog With Chemical Warfare David Mizejewski 2011

  • Synopsis: The “cynical gag” manga and anime take the archetypal characteristics of about 20 countries and regions, and anthropomorphize them as (mostly) bishōnen characters.

    Anime Preview: Summer 2009 « Undercover 2009

  • 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.

    An Illustrated Guide : The Lovecraft News Network 2010

  • 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 2009

  • 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?

    Critical Thinking Exercise 2010

  • 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.

    David Mizejewski: Newt Kills Frog With Chemical Warfare David Mizejewski 2011

Comments

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  • Don't anthropomorphize computers; they hate that.

    June 26, 2007

  • It doesn't get much worse than seeing byte used as a verb in a lame, lame pun.

    June 27, 2007

  • I dropped this bomb on my IQ tester. She was speechless.

    March 14, 2008

  • Perhaps she should be looking for a new line of work...

    March 14, 2008

  • That's what I call, Dropping the APM bomb

    March 14, 2008

  • 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*

    March 15, 2008

  • Captain Archer would do this to his dog, Porthos sometimes.

    June 23, 2012

  • Is that like the Freemasons and goats?

    June 23, 2012