Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To serve as a typical example of; embody the essential characteristics of.
  • transitive verb To represent by an image, a form, or a model; symbolize or prefigure.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To represent by an image, form, model, or resemblance; show forth; prefigure.
  • To be or constitute a type of; embody the typical characteristics of; exemplify: as, the tiger typifies all the animals of the cat kind.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To represent by an image, form, model, or resemblance.
  • transitive verb To embody the essential or salient characteristics of; to be the type of.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To embody, exemplify; to represent by an image, form, model, or resemblance.
  • verb transitive To portray stereotypically.
  • verb transitive, sciences To serve as a typical or reference specimen.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb express indirectly by an image, form, or model; be a symbol
  • verb embody the essential characteristics of or be a typical example of

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Abbott's calls typify "his tendency to go too far," Gillard said Jan. 28 at a news conference in Melbourne.

    BusinessWeek.com -- Top News 2012

  • Abbott's calls typify "his tendency to go too far," Gillard said Jan. 28 at a news conference in Melbourne.

    BusinessWeek.com -- Top News 2012

  • Pastel-painted row houses typify this compact quarter, home of the city's Cape Malay community.

    Where South Africa Goes to Play 2011

  • Public sector workers -- teachers and also nurses, firefighters, paramedics, psychological counselors, surveyors, assessors, just for starters -- typify the skilled workforce that the post-war public university helped to make solidly middle class.

    Christopher Newfield: Still Unmaking the Public University Christopher Newfield 2011

  • And although their songs are often About Stuff, U2 patented this stubbornly pervasive tone of wafty, inchoate, non-specific, quasi-spiritual yearning that has come to typify big stadium acts.

    Are U2 bad for Glastonbury? 2011

  • Pastel-painted row houses typify this compact quarter, home of the city's Cape Malay community.

    Secret Season 2011

  • Public sector workers -- teachers and also nurses, firefighters, paramedics, psychological counselors, surveyors, assessors, just for starters -- typify the skilled workforce that the post-war public university helped to make solidly middle class.

    Christopher Newfield: Still Unmaking the Public University Christopher Newfield 2011

  • In the manufacturing plant where I worked, we did have a few Mexican engineers, and they did not seem to typify at all the tone of that story.

    Interesting tone about immigrants... 2009

  • Within a short time, a feeling of being adrift also seems to typify most abused people.

    Recovering From Religious Abuse Jack Watts 2011

  • "In nouveau riche City you can see the rise of the East selling something people want to buy – natural gas – while United typify the debt-filled west."

    Both sides of Manchester paint the town red and blue 2011

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