reify

The brain latches on or compares itself to others, starting a negative cycle of thinking that can reify itself.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 1, 2024

They ask critical questions about colleges as sites that perpetuate classism, places that not only reify hierarchies of value but rely on it as part of their mythology.

From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2021

There seems to be a feedback mechanism now whereby the betting-market odds reify themselves.

From Slate ● Jul. 12, 2016

And that, in turn, their worth was meaningless without a man or a corporation to reify it.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 22, 2016

Markets reify this contribution, turning life, energy, doubts, time, or whatever else-in particular language-into the commodity embodied in the product.

From The Civilization of Illiteracy by Mihai Nadin

We play by a code of conduct, that nebulous thing we have reified as “international law.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 8, 2025

Each count, Mr Teltumbde argues, "did not merely record caste, but reified and hardened it".

From BBC ● Nov. 12, 2025

Pitsilionis was born in Greece; he credits his commitment to hospitality in part to his homeland’s culture, reified working in his family’s restaurant after they moved to Kenai, Alaska.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 4, 2023

The TV Bourdain of “A Cook’s Tour,” still a young man, reinforced the persona of the bad boy, willing to eat anything anywhere, and reified the idea of the macho knife-loving male chef.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2018

Medical concepts resulting from analytic practical experiences of self-constitution-many reified in the medicine of the civilization of literacy-defy the variety of possible balances and embody the suspicion that "The solution is the problem."

From The Civilization of Illiteracy by Mihai Nadin

But they also lead new professors to become glued to that position in the room, reifying the power imbalance that already exists: professor as oracle, center-front at the microphone.

From Slate ● Oct. 20, 2024

Based off the conventions and what exists in the world in terms of cyborgian narratives, I wanted to contribute something that isn’t reifying those projects.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 29, 2022

It’s tough to know how purposeful these indictments about privilege are — they generally serve the narratives of the shows while reifying their stars, who are presented as being open to personal growth.

From New York Times ● Dec. 23, 2021

Simply reifying the railroad—the fulcrum of the novel itself—was enough to hint at the book’s wonderful strangeness, without revealing too much.

From Slate ● Dec. 6, 2016

For as long as human activity was relatively homogeneous, there was no need for political delegation or for reifying political goals into rules or organizations.

From The Civilization of Illiteracy by Mihai Nadin