What literary device gives human-like qualities to inanimate objects?

Personification is the literary device that ascribes human-like qualities and characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, or abstract concepts. This technique is used by authors to create vivid imagery and to help readers relate to non-human elements by making them more relatable through human traits or emotions. For example, saying "the wind whispered through the trees" gives the wind a human-like quality of whispering, enhancing the reader's experience.

In contrast, metaphor involves making direct comparisons between two unrelated things without using "like" or "as," and hyperbole is an exaggeration used for emphasis or effect. Simile also makes a comparison but does so explicitly using "like" or "as." While these other literary devices enhance writing in their own ways, they do not provide the same human-like characteristics to objects as personification does.