Meanings
plural reifications
- countableuncountableThe consideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living.
Computer scientists found out how functional reification is in programming languages: they call it ‘object-oriented programming’ […].
2018, Pieter Seuren, Saussure and Sechehaye […] , BRILL, →ISBN, page 2092 more examples
The reification of art and religion, a symptom of their historical obsolescence, takes the form of their instrumentalization, their reduction to a mere use value. At this point they become ‘cultural goods’, writes Adorno, and ‘are no longer taken quite seriously by anybody.’
2002, Timothy Bewes, Reification: Or The Anxiety of Late Capitalism, Verso, →ISBN, page 146Reification swaps out a political problem for a scientific or technical one; it’s how, for example, the effects of unregulated tech oligopolies become “social media addiction,” how climate catastrophe caused by corporate greed becomes a “heat wave” — and, by the way, how the effect of struggles between labor and corporations combines with high energy prices to become “inflation.”
2022 September 20, Danielle Carr, “Mental Health Is Political”, in The New York Times, →ISSN - countableuncountableThe consideration of a human being as an impersonal object.
- countableuncountablecomputingA process that makes a computable/addressable object out of a non-computable/addressable one; or a concrete class out of a generic one.
Contrary to Java, C++ and C# implement generics via reification, meaning that each specific version of a generic class, like List<String> is converted into a concrete class, either at compile time (C++) or at runtime (C#).
2020, Marco Faella, Seriously Good Software: Code that works, survives, and wins, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 251 - countableuncountablehuman sciencesThe transformation of a natural-language statement into a form in which its actions and events are quantifiable variables.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounregarding something abstract as a material thing
nounrepresenting a human being as a physical thing deprived of personal qualities or individuality
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latinrēs“thing”
- GermanVerdinglichung
- Englishreification
First attested around 1846; a macaronic calque of German Verdinglichung, using -ification (“making”) for ver- + -lich + -ung, and Latin rēs (“thing”) for Ding (“thing”)
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian материализиране
- материализиране (materializirane)Consideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living
Chinese Mandarin 具象化
- 具象化 (jùxiànghuà)Consideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living
Finnish konkretisointi
- konkretisointiConsideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living
French réification
- réificationConsideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living
German Verdinglichung, Vergegenständlichung
- VerdinglichungConsideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living
- VergegenständlichungConsideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living
- ReifikationConsideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living
- Reifizierungprogramming: Process that makes out of a non-computable/addressable object a computable/addressable one
Greek υποστατοποίηση
- υποστατοποίηση (ypostatopoíisi)Consideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living
Hebrew חיפצון
- חיפצוןConsideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living
Japanese 実体化
- 実体化 (jittaika)Consideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living
Korean 실재화
- 실재화 (siljaehwa)Consideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living
Norwegian tingliggjøring
- tingliggjøringConsideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living
Portuguese reificação
- reificaçãoConsideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living
Russian реификация
- реификация (reifikacija)Consideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living
Spanish cosificación, reificación
- cosificaciónConsideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living
- reificaciónConsideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living
Turkish cisimleştirme, maddeleştirme
- cisimleştirmeConsideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living
- maddeleştirmeConsideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living
- soyutlaştırmaConsideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with reification
Cite this entry
reification. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/reification
“reification.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/reification. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “reification,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/reification.
Source: reification on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.