1. treating an abstract concept as if it were a concrete, material thing
Usage: philosophical; academic

Examples

• The philosopher criticized the tendency of reifying complex social relationships into simple economic models.
• By reifying intelligence as a single number, IQ tests oversimplify human cognitive abilities.
• The company was reifying customer satisfaction by reducing it to survey scores alone.
• Critics argue that standardized testing is reifying education into mere data points.
• The sociologist warned against reifying culture as something fixed and unchanging.
• Reifying mental health as purely biological ignores important social factors.