Personification is the attribution of human qualities, actions, or feelings to nonhuman things—animals, objects, natural forces, or abstractions. It makes the nonhuman world speak and act in human terms.

“The wind whispered,” “justice is blind,” and “the city never sleeps” are instances of personification. Poets use it to create vivid imagery and to explore relationships between human consciousness and the external world. Fables and allegories rely on it systematically. In everyday speech personification is common and often barely noticed.

Personification differs from anthropomorphism mainly in degree and context; the former is a figure of speech, the latter often a broader attribution of human traits to animals or gods. Effective personification feels natural within its context; forced personification calls attention to itself as a device. The figure can be playful, solemn, or unsettling depending on what is being personified and how.

When something that is not human is described as if it were, the figure is personification.