Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Personification \Per*son`i*fi*ca"tion\, n. [Cf. F.
   personnification.]
   1. The act of personifying; impersonation; embodiment. --C.
      Knight.

   2. (Rhet.) A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or
      abstract idea is represented as animated, or endowed with
      personality; prosopop?ia; as, the floods clap their hands.
      ``Confusion heards his voice.'' --Milton.

Source : WordNet®

personification
     n 1: a person who represents an abstract quality; "she is the
          personification of optimism"
     2: representing an abstract quality or idea as a person or
        creature [syn: {prosopopoeia}]
     3: the act of attributing human characteristics to abstract
        ideas etc. [syn: {incarnation}]