Meanings
present singular third person depersonates · participle present depersonating · participle past depersonated · past depersonated
- To depersonalize; to remove the status of a person.
The fantasy of robotic masses expresses a complex desire, to embody and depersonate at the same time.
2014, Despina Kakoudaki, Anatomy of a Robot2 more examples
Is there not a tendency to speak of the operation of the Holy Spirit as that of an influence, rather than an agency — to depersonate or impersonate Him?
1847, The Biblical review, and Congregational magazineIn "St. Simeon Stylites" (1833), camparably, the monologist's obsession with gaining a sanctified fame leads him to depersonate himself into the very stone pillar on which he sits, the epithet by which he has his identity: he names himself, "I, Simeon of the pillar, by surname / Stylites, among men; I, Simeon, / The watcher on the column till the end" (lines 158-60).
1993, Herbert F. Tucker, Critical essays on Alfred Lord Tennyson, page 101
Origin
From de- + person + -ate (verb-forming suffix).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
depersonate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/depersonate
“depersonate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/depersonate. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “depersonate,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/depersonate.
Source: depersonate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.