1. to treat an abstract concept as if it were a concrete thing or substance
Usage: formal; philosophy

Examples

• The philosopher warned against hypostatizing justice as a physical entity.
• Critics argued that the theory hypostatizes consciousness inappropriately.
• We must be careful not to hypostatize mathematical concepts.
• The ancient Greeks tended to hypostatize virtues as gods.
• Modern psychology avoids hypostatizing the mind as a separate substance.
• The error lies in hypostatizing what is merely a useful abstraction.