To personify something means to describe or represent it as if it were a person with human qualities, feelings, or actions. When you say “the wind whispered through the trees” or “the sun smiled down on us,” you're personifying natural things by giving them human abilities like whispering or smiling.

Writers use personification to make their descriptions more vivid and emotional. In Charlotte's Web, when the author describes how “the barn was pleasantly warm in winter when the animals spent most of their time indoors,” the barn becomes almost like a caring host. When you write that “my alarm clock screamed at me this morning” or “the homework assignment stared at me from my desk,” you're using personification to make your writing more interesting.

The word can also mean to be a perfect example of something. When people say “She personifies kindness,” they mean she's such a kind person that she seems to represent kindness itself. A brave firefighter might personify courage, or a dedicated scientist might personify curiosity. In this sense, the person embodies that quality so completely that others can point to them and say, “That's what courage looks like.”