typify
verb
typ·i·fy
ˈti-pə-ˌfī 
typified; typifying
1
: to represent in typical fashion : to constitute a typical mark or instance of
In Boston, the highly recognizable Brahmin accent … typifies the speech of New England gentry …—
Valerie Fridland
Valerie Fridland2
: to embody the essential or salient characteristics of : be the type of
Italian typifies the Romance languages.
Examples of typify in a Sentence
His heroic actions typified the courage of all the firefighters at the scene.
The decor typifies the elegance of royal residences.
He typifies what a professional athlete should be.
Gothic architecture is typified by soaring rooflines and stained glass.
Recent Examples on the Web
Perhaps the first big style shift of the psychoanalytic era came in the years after the First World War, with the rise of androgynous looks typified by the boyish profile of the flapper.
—Leslie Jamison, New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2025
Rapid-fire debating has become something of a phenomenon on YouTube over the last few years, typified by influencers like Ben Shapiro and Steven Bonnell.
—Parmy Olson, Twin Cities, 21 Dec. 2025
Parton rose to be one of country music’s biggest stars in the 1970s in part by cultivating an extravagant, sexualized, working-class persona, typified by her flamboyant physical appearance that liberal writers proved incapable of understanding or taking seriously.
—Time, 6 Dec. 2025
And so too is his slightly flailing, vaguely desperate, going-for-it run, typified by his hair falling out of place and the sense that this man is fundamentally, for all his money and celebrity, some guy trying to get from one place to another.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 5 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for typify
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Leslie Jamison, New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2025
Rapid-fire debating has become something of a phenomenon on YouTube over the last few years, typified by influencers like Ben Shapiro and Steven Bonnell.
—Parmy Olson, Twin Cities, 21 Dec. 2025
Parton rose to be one of country music’s biggest stars in the 1970s in part by cultivating an extravagant, sexualized, working-class persona, typified by her flamboyant physical appearance that liberal writers proved incapable of understanding or taking seriously.
—Time, 6 Dec. 2025
And so too is his slightly flailing, vaguely desperate, going-for-it run, typified by his hair falling out of place and the sense that this man is fundamentally, for all his money and celebrity, some guy trying to get from one place to another.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 5 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for typify
Cite this Entry
“Typify.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/typify. Accessed 28 Dec. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
typify
verb
typ·i·fy
ˈtip-ə-ˌfī
typified; typifying
2
: to have or include the special or main characteristics of
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