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# personification

«personification» in Mova's school dictionary: **a way of writing that gives human feelings or actions to…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (personification, uncountable; a personification, personifications)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Personification is a way of writing that gives human feelings or actions to things that are not human: «The wind howled.» «The sun smiled down.» [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/personification/#m1)

2) A personification of something is a person or character who stands for an idea: Father Time is a personification of time. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/personification/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In English lessons, personification is a key figure of speech for poetry and descriptive writing, alongside similes and metaphors; pupils find it in poems («the leaves danced») and use it to make settings come alive. In art and history, the statue of Justice holding scales is a personification. Phrases: «use personification», «an example of personification», «the personification of».

### examples

- «The trees whispered secrets» is personification. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/personification/#x1)
- Underline the personification in the poem. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/personification/#x2)
- «The angry sea swallowed the boat» uses personification. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/personification/#x3)
- Father Christmas is a personification of Christmas giving. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/personification/#x4)
- The old car coughed and groaned up the hill. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/personification/#x5)
- She was the personification of kindness. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/personification/#x6)
- Hebe was the personification of eternal youth under its most attractive and joyous aspect. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/personification/#x7)

### note

Verb: «personify» (personifies, personified). Long word: per-son-i-fi-ca-tion. Different from a simile (uses like/as) and a metaphor (says something is something else); personification is a kind of metaphor that makes things act like people.

### In the corpora

- [Poets paint pictures with words, and they have a few favourite tricks: the simile, the metaphor, personification and alliteration.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/46-poetry-simile-metaphor-personification-alliteration/0/)
- [Personification gives human actions or feelings to non-human things: "the wind screamed", "the moon smiled".](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/46-poetry-simile-metaphor-personification-alliteration/8/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «personification» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/personification/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.