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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

reify en · VERB

Pronunciation

  • (US) audio
  • (US) audio
  • /ˈɹeɪ.ə.faɪ/ (UK, US)
  • /ˈɹiː.ə.faɪ/ (UK, US)

Etymology

Back-formation from reification, calque from German. Formed as Latin rēs (“thing”) + -ify (English suffix).

Meanings

  1. (transitive) 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:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
reifies Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
reifying Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
reified Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
reified Tense=Past lexicographic

Coordinates

realize

Deriveds

reifier · dereification · reification · reifiable · dereify · unreified

Relateds

hypostatize · conceptualize · personify

Synonyms

objectify · picture · concretize · thingify

Translations (23)

ar جَسَّمَ (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · pt reificar (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · fi esineellistää (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · fi tehdä käsinkosketeltavaksi (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · ar جَسَّدَ (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · bg материализирам (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · fi havainnollistaa (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · de reifizieren (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · de vergegenständlichen (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · de verdinglichen (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · pt coisificar (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · nb tingliggjøre (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · es cosificar (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · tr cisimleştirmek (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · fr réifier (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · he המחיש (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · tr maddeleştirmek (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · mk опредметува (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · tr somutlaştırmak (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · nl concretiseren (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · ca reïficar (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · ru материализовать (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing) · nl verstoffelijken (to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing)