reify

Back-formation from reification, calque from German. Formed as Latin rēs (“thing”) +‎ -ify (English suffix).

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈɹiː.ə.faɪ/, /ˈɹeɪ.ə.faɪ/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (US):

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reify (third-person singular simple present reifies, present participle reifying, simple past and past participle reified)

1. (transitive) To regard something abstract as if it were a concrete material thing.
   • 2024 September, Rachel Kushner, Creation Lake, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, page 349. "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."

• concretize, objectify, picture, thingify

• realize (make real)

• dereify
• dereification
• reification

• conceptualize, hypostatize, personify

• fiery, firey