Personification: Definition and 80 Examples by Type
Personification is a figure of speech that gives human actions, feelings or qualities to something that is not human: an object, an animal, nature or an idea. In “The wind whispered through the trees”, only people whisper, so the wind is personified. Other everyday examples: “My phone died“, “Opportunity knocked“, “The city never sleeps“.
The test is simple: find the verb or adjective and ask, “Is this something a person does or feels?” If yes, and the subject is not a person, it is personification. This page gives 80 examples sorted by subject, shows how personification differs from metaphor, simile and anthropomorphism, and ends with exercises and answers.
On this page: how to spot it · nature · objects · feelings · ideas · places and the body · everyday speech · in literature · extended personification · in poems · what is not personification · compared with similar figures · why writers use it · how to write it · exercises · FAQ
How to spot personification
- Find the subject. Is it a person? If it is, there is no personification: “The girl danced” is literal.
- Find the word that describes it (usually the verb, sometimes an adjective or a body part).
- Ask whether that word belongs to people. Whisper, smile, weep, dance, argue, invite, be proud, be lazy: yes. Fall, shine, grow, flow, spread: no, those are what the thing really does.
So “The sun shone” is literal, but “The sun smiled on us” is personification. “The leaves fell” is literal; “The leaves danced” is personification.
Personification examples: nature and weather
| Example | The human action or quality |
|---|---|
| The wind whispered through the trees. | whispering (speech) |
| The sun smiled down on the picnic. | smiling |
| The rain drummed its fingers on the roof. | fingers, an impatient habit |
| The moon peeked out from behind the clouds. | peeking (shyness, curiosity) |
| The stars winked at us. | winking |
| The flowers nodded in the breeze. | nodding |
| The trees stretched their arms towards the sky. | arms, stretching |
| The mountains stood guard over the valley. | guarding (a human job) |
| The river danced over the rocks. | dancing |
| The sea was angry that night. | anger (an emotion) |
| The thunder grumbled in the distance. | grumbling (complaining) |
| The storm attacked the coast. | attacking (intent) |
| The breeze caressed my face. | caressing (affection) |
| The snowflakes kissed my cheeks. | kissing |
| Dawn tiptoed into the room. | tiptoeing |
| The valley cradled the village. | cradling a child |
| The volcano lost its temper. | temper |
| The waterfall sang all night. | singing |
| The old oak remembered a hundred summers. | memory |
| The fields were thirsty for rain. | thirst felt as a desire |
Personification examples: objects
| Example | The human action or quality |
|---|---|
| The old car coughed and spluttered. | coughing |
| The door groaned as it opened. | groaning |
| The computer screen glared at me. | glaring (an angry look) |
| The clock ticked impatiently. | impatience |
| The house stood proudly on the hill. | pride |
| The walls have ears. | ears, listening |
| The chair invited me to sit down. | inviting |
| The printer refused to work. | refusing (a choice) |
| The stairs complained under our feet. | complaining |
| The alarm clock screamed at six. | screaming |
| My pen ran away again. | running away |
| The kettle sighed and switched itself off. | sighing |
| The camera loves her. | love |
| The empty swing waited for the children. | waiting with intent |
| The suitcase refused to close. | refusing |
| The cake was begging to be eaten. | begging |
Personification examples: feelings
A feeling is personified when it acts like a person: it whispers, knocks, waits, embraces or attacks.
| Example | The human action |
|---|---|
| Fear whispered in his ear. | whispering |
| Despair wrapped its arms around her. | arms, hugging |
| Jealousy reared its ugly head. | head (an idiom that treats jealousy as a creature) |
| Loneliness followed him from room to room. | following |
| Doubt crept into her mind. | creeping in like an intruder |
| Joy danced in her eyes. | dancing |
| Regret haunted his dreams. | haunting, like a ghost |
| Hope refused to give up. | refusing, persistence |
| Anxiety kept me company all night. | keeping company |
| Frustration tapped its foot. | foot, impatience |
| Envy told him lies. | speaking, lying |
| Peace finally visited the house. | visiting |
Personification examples: time and ideas
| Example | The human action or quality |
|---|---|
| Time marches on. | marching |
| Opportunity knocked on the door. | knocking |
| Death waited patiently in the corner. | waiting, patience |
| Justice is blind. | justice imagined as a woman with a blindfold (Lady Justice) |
| History will judge us. | judging |
| Fate played a cruel trick on them. | playing tricks, cruelty |
| Poverty knocked at the door. | knocking |
| Luck smiled on us. | smiling |
| The law does not forgive ignorance. | forgiving |
| Money talks. | talking |
| Time heals all wounds. | healing, like a doctor |
| Hunger drove them to steal. | driving, forcing |
Personification examples: places, buildings and the body
| Example | The human action or quality |
|---|---|
| The town woke up slowly on Sunday. | waking up |
| The empty streets held their breath. | holding your breath (tension) |
| The school welcomed its new students. | welcoming |
| The old factory stared at us with broken windows. | staring, eyes |
| London wore a grey coat of fog. | wearing clothes |
| The castle frowned down from the cliff. | frowning |
| My legs begged me to stop running. | begging |
| My heart argued with my head. | arguing |
| The country mourned its king. | mourning (the nation imagined as one person) |
| The dark forest swallowed the path. | swallowing, as a hungry person or beast would |
Extended personification: a worked example
Personification is extended when one human picture runs through several sentences. Read this short passage and notice how the storm stays the same “person” throughout:
The storm arrived in a bad mood. It slammed the shutters, tore the washing off the line and threw the garden chairs across the lawn. All night it shouted down the chimney and rattled the doors, demanding to be let in. By morning it had worn itself out, and it slunk away over the hills, muttering.
Every verb belongs to an angry person having a tantrum: arrived in a bad mood, slammed, threw, shouted, demanding, worn itself out, slunk away, muttering. Because the picture is consistent, the reader feels the storm’s violence and then its weakening without being told. When you analyse personification in an exam, name the human role (here, an angry person or a child in a tantrum), quote two or three verbs, and say what mood or idea the comparison creates.
Personification in short poems
Poems for children and students use personification often because it turns a description into a tiny story. Two short original examples:
The kettle hums a morning song,
the toaster joins in, loud and strong,
the window yawns and lets in day,
and sleepy shadows creep away.
Winter knocks, then walks inside,
he leaves his footprints, cold and wide;
he blows on glass, he steals the sun,
and stays until the spring has won.
In the first, ordinary objects become a choir and the window wakes up. In the second, winter is a rude guest who enters without asking, steals and refuses to leave. Writing a short poem like these, about one object in your house, is a good way to practise.
Personification in everyday speech
Many personifications are so common that we stop noticing them:
- My phone died. / The battery is dying.
- The car won’t start; it’s being stubborn.
- The city never sleeps.
- The website told me to try again.
- My stomach is growling. (Strictly, growling is what animals do, so some teachers call this an animal comparison rather than personification.)
- The laundry is waiting for me.
- The garden is calling my name.
- The computer is thinking.
- That jacket suits you; it loves you.
- The data shows / the report says (a very weak personification used in all formal writing).
Personification in famous literature
- Emily Dickinson opens a poem with death as a polite gentleman: “Because I could not stop for Death – / He kindly stopped for me”. Death drives a carriage and is “kindly”, so the poem is a personification from start to end.
- William Wordsworth, in “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, describes daffodils “Tossing their heads in sprightly dance”: the flowers have heads and dance. (The title line itself is a simile.)
- John Keats, in “To Autumn”, makes autumn a person: a friend of the sun who sits on a granary floor and sleeps in a half-reaped field.
- William Shakespeare often personifies time and death; in Romeo and Juliet, Romeo calls death an “amorous” monster who keeps Juliet for himself.
- Children’s books are full of extended personification: talking toys, trains with feelings, a moon that says goodnight.
What is not personification
Many lists online mix in other figures. These are common examples that are something else:
| Sentence | What it really is |
|---|---|
| Knowledge is power. | a metaphor or a statement: no human action |
| Ignorance is bliss. | a proverb (from Thomas Gray’s line “where ignorance is bliss”); bliss is a state, not a human action |
| Grief washed over him like a wave. | a simile (like a wave): grief is compared to water |
| The rumour spread like wildfire. | a simile; spreading is not a human action |
| Anger boiled inside him. | a metaphor (anger as hot liquid), not a human action |
| Contentment purred in her chest. | purring belongs to cats, so this compares a feeling to an animal |
| The bills are piling up. | literal: bills really do pile up |
| The internet is down. | literal idiom for “not working” |
| The leaves fell. | literal |
| The White House announced new rules. | metonymy: the building stands for the people in it |
| The gatekeeper watched over the city. | literal: a gatekeeper is a person |
Personification compared with similar figures of speech
| Figure | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| personification | gives a human action, feeling or quality to a non-human thing | The wind sighed. |
| metaphor | says one thing is another | The wind was a knife. |
| simile | compares with like or as | The wind was like a knife. |
| anthropomorphism | makes an animal or thing fully behave as a person: talking, wearing clothes, having a life | The rabbit put on his waistcoat and checked his watch. |
| pathetic fallacy | nature reflects a character’s mood (a kind of personification) | On the day of the funeral, the sky wept. |
| apostrophe | speaks directly to an absent person or a thing | “O Death, where is thy sting?” |
Personification is usually counted as a type of metaphor, because it compares a thing to a person without saying “like”. The difference with anthropomorphism is one of degree: one human verb in a sentence is personification; a fox who runs a shop and talks to customers is anthropomorphism. For the other figures, see types of metaphor, what is a simile and apostrophe as a figure of speech.
Why writers use personification
- To make a scene vivid. “The fog crept along the street” is easier to picture than “the fog moved slowly”.
- To set a mood. A house that “glowered” feels threatening; a house that “welcomed” us feels warm.
- To make abstract ideas concrete. Time, death and fate are hard to picture until they march, wait or play tricks.
- To show a character’s feelings. A worried character hears the clock “nagging”; a happy one hears the birds “cheering”.
- For humour. “My alarm clock hates me” is funnier than “my alarm is loud”.
How to write your own personification
- Pick a thing and decide the mood you want (calm, scary, funny).
- Think of a person who fits that mood (a gentle nurse, a thief, a grumpy old man).
- Borrow one verb that person would do: the rain nursed the garden; the shadows stole across the floor; the boiler grumbled.
- Keep the comparison consistent in the sentence. “The angry storm gently tucked in the town” mixes two people.
Exercises with answers
A. Personification or not?
- The leaves danced across the playground.
- The leaves blew across the playground.
- Her smile was as bright as the sun.
- The old house groaned in the wind.
- The thief crept into the house.
- Time is money.
- The tired sun went to bed behind the hills.
- The fog crept into the harbour.
Answers: 1 yes. 2 no (blowing is literal). 3 no, a simile. 4 yes. 5 no (a thief is a person). 6 no, a metaphor. 7 yes (tired, going to bed). 8 yes (creeping as if sneaking).
B. Rewrite with personification. Example answers are given; many others are possible.
- The rain fell hard. → The rain hammered angrily on the windows.
- The computer was slow. → The computer dragged its feet all morning.
- The clock was loud. → The clock shouted every second.
- The fire went out. → The fire gave up and fell asleep.
For mixed practice with all figures of speech, see the figures of speech worksheet and 27 figures of speech with examples.
FAQ
What is personification in simple words?
Talking about a thing, an animal or an idea as if it were a person: “The flowers smiled”, “Time flies”.
Is “time flies” personification?
It is often taught as personification, but flying is not a human action, so many teachers call it a metaphor (time as a bird). “Time marches on” or “time heals” are clearer examples.
Is personification a type of metaphor?
Yes. It is an implied comparison between a thing and a person, so most textbooks list it as a kind of metaphor.
Can animals be personified?
Yes, when you give them human qualities they do not really have: “The cat judged me silently.” When an animal talks and lives like a person for a whole story, that is called anthropomorphism.
What is the opposite of personification?
Describing a person as an object or animal, sometimes called objectification or dehumanisation: “He was a machine on the field.”
