Meanings
present singular third person reifies · participle present reifying · participle past reified · past reified
- transitiveTo 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 349Synonyms: concretize, objectify, picture, thingify
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing.
Origin
- Latinrēs“thing”
- Englishreify
Back-formation from reification, calque from German. Formed as Latin rēs (“thing”) + -ify (English suffix).
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic جَسَّدَ, جَسَّمَ
- جَسَّدَ (jassada)to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
- جَسَّمَ (jassama)to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
Bulgarian материализирам
- материализирам (materializiram)to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
Catalan reïficar
- reïficarto regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
Chinese Mandarin 具象化
- 具象化 (jùxiànghuà)to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
Dutch concretiseren, verstoffelijken
- concretiserento regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
- verstoffelijkento regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
Finnish havainnollistaa, tehdä käsinkosketeltavaksi
- havainnollistaato regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
- tehdä käsinkosketeltavaksito regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
- esineellistääto regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
French réifier
- réifierto regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
German verdinglichen, vergegenständlichen
- verdinglichento regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
- vergegenständlichento regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
- reifizierento regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
Hebrew המחיש
- המחיש (himkhísh)to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
Norwegian Bokmål tingliggjøre
- tingliggjøreto regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
Portuguese coisificar, reificar
- coisificarto regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
- reificarto regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
Russian материализовать
- материализовать (materializovatʹ)to regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
Spanish cosificar
- cosificarto regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
Turkish cisimleştirmek, maddeleştirmek
- cisimleştirmekto regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
- maddeleştirmekto regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
- somutlaştırmakto regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
reify. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/reify
“reify.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/reify. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “reify,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/reify.
Source: reify on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.