Meaning & use
reify
Last updated
to treat an abstract idea or concept as if it were a real, concrete thing.
See it in a sentence
Critics argued that the report reifies 'intelligence' as a single fixed quantity.
The ritual helped reify the community's shared values into a tangible tradition.
A note on using this word
Reify is common in academic and philosophical writing, often used critically to point out when a concept is mistakenly treated as a physical object.
Words with a similar meaning
concretizeembody
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Words with an opposite meaning
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