WORD OF THE DAY: REIFY

WORD OF THE DAY: REIFY

verb | RAY-uh-fye

What It Means

Reifying is about considering or representing something abstract as a material or concrete thing. If you reify a concept or idea you somehow give it definite content and form.

// The tense personal dynamic between the two musicians was reified by the dissonant yet captivating music they made together.

Examples of REIFY

“Evolutionary theory and experimental evidence reveals that race is not a natural category. We evolved alongside people who looked like us. And social categories we create and reify affect perceptions of who is them and who is us.” — Michael Muthukrishna, Time, 3 Feb. 2024

Did You Know?

Reify is a word that attempts to provide a bridge between what is abstract and what is concrete. Fittingly, it comes from a word that is an ancestor of real—the Latin noun res, meaning “thing.” Both reify and the related noun reification first appeared in English in the mid-19th century. Each word combines the Latin res with an English suffix (-fy and -fication, respectively) that comes from the Latin verb -ficare, meaning “to make.” In general use, the words refer to the act of considering or presenting an abstract idea or concept in real or material terms, or of assessing something by use of a concrete example.

Merriam Webster Dictionary