embodiment

embody +‎ -ment

• Audio (US):

  (file)

embodiment (countable and uncountable, plural embodiments)

1. The process of embodying.
2. (countable) A physical entity typifying an abstract concept.

   You are the very embodiment of beauty.

   • 1880, W. S. Gilbert, Iolanthe:

     The law is the true embodiment / Of everything that's excellent. / It has no kind of fault or flaw, / And I, my Lords, embody the law.

   • 2017 September 27, David Browne, “Hugh Hefner, 'Playboy' Founder, Dead at 91”, in Rolling Stone:

     And with his trademark smoking jackets and pipes – and the silk pajamas he would often wear to work – Hefner became the embodiment of a sexually adventurous yet urbane image and lifestyle, a seeming role model for generations of men.

3. (sociology) The ways that knowledge, personality, culture, etc. are modulated by being experienced through a physical body.
   • 2001, Susan Stryker, Queer Pulp, page 17:

     In many respects, the genre [science fiction] was exceptionally well suited to extrapolate from contemporary social concerns and promote visions of alternative societies, new forms of embodiment, and novel pathways for desire and pleasure.

• incarnation

• disembodiment
• reembodiment