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Word of the Day Archive
Saturday January 3, 2004

vivify \VIV-uh-fy\ , transitive verb:
1. To endue with life; to make alive; to animate.
2. To make more lively or intense.

Can the writer isolate and vivify all in experience that most deeply engages our intellects and our hearts?
-- Annie Dillard, "Write Till You Drop", New York Times, May 28, 1989

Stories not only provide context for statistical statements but canillustrate and vivify them as well.
-- John Allen Paulos, Once Upon a Number

Vivify comes from French vivifier, from Late Latin vivificare, from Latin vivus, alive.

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for vivify