What literary device involves giving human traits to non-human entities?

The literary device that involves giving human traits to non-human entities is personification. This technique allows writers to create more relatable and vivid descriptions by attributing human characteristics, emotions, or actions to animals, inanimate objects, or abstract concepts. For example, in a sentence like "The wind whispered through the trees," the wind is given the human ability to whisper, enhancing the imagery and emotional resonance of the scene.

In contrast, alliteration involves the repetition of initial consonant sounds in neighboring words, which serves to create rhythm or emphasize particular phrases but does not involve human traits. Imagery refers to language that appeals to the senses and creates vivid mental pictures, rather than ascribing human qualities. Metonymy is a figure of speech in which one thing is referred to by the name of something closely associated with it, such as using “the crown” to mean “the monarchy.” This further illustrates that personification is distinctly focused on human-like attributes, making it the correct answer.