epitomize
Other forms: epitomized; epitomizes; epitomizing
If you epitomize something, you’re a perfect example of that thing. If you never get nervous when playing basketball and can always make that last-second shot, your teammates might say you epitomize mental toughness.
A person can epitomize something — usually an abstract quality, like grace or greed — but epitomize can apply to other things as well. A popular band might epitomize the spirit of the new decade, which means it has all the main characteristics associated with the era's music, like long folksy beards, pretty harmonies, and earnest lyrics. A frustrating situation at work involving careless coworkers might make you say that they epitomize everything that’s wrong with your job.
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embody the essential characteristics of or be a typical example of
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Vocabulary lists containing epitomize
The author pairs his stories of growing up in New York and Delaware as the eighth of twelve children who identified primarily as Black Christians with the memories of his white Jewish mother.
In this memoir, Jon Krakauer recounts a disastrous expedition to the summit of Mt. Everest that left five people dead and many others — including the author — questioning their own culpability.
Harriet Tubman was born into slavery, escaped to freedom, and worked to liberate countless other enslaved people. Learn more about Tubman's life by reviewing these words from Ann Petry's acclaimed biography.