people

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Meaning

1. plural of person: a body of persons considered generally or collectively; a group of two or more persons.
2. Persons forming or belonging to a particular group, such as a nation, class, ethnic group, country, family, etc.
3. A group of persons regarded as being servants, followers, companions or subjects of a ruler or leader.
4. One's colleagues or employees.
5. A person's ancestors, relatives or family.
6. The mass of a community as distinguished from a special class (elite); the commonalty; the populace; the vulgar; the common crowd; the citizens.
7. People in general, humans, by extension sentient beings real or fictional.

Frequency

Hyphenated as

peo‧ple

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈpiːpəl/

Etymology

From Middle English puple, peple, peeple, from Anglo-Norman people, from Old French pueple, peuple, pople, from Latin populus (“a people, nation”), from Old Latin populus, from earlier poplus, from even earlier poplos, from Proto-Italic *poplos (“army”) of unknown origin. Doublet of pueblo. Gradually ousted native English lede and, partially, folk. Originally used with singular verbs (e.g. "the people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness" in the King James Version of 2 Samuel 17:29), the plural aspect of people is probably due to influence from Middle English lede, leed, a plural since Old English times; see lēode.

Cognate with English

lede

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New

person

1. An individual who has been granted personhood; usually a human being.
2. An individual who has been granted personhood; usually a human being.
3. An individual who has been granted personhood; usually a human being.
4. An individual who has been granted personhood; usually a human being.
5. An individual who has been granted personhood; usually a human being.
6. An individual who has been granted personhood; usually a human being.
7. An individual who has been granted personhood; usually a human being.
8. The physical body of a being seen as distinct from the mind, character, etc.
9. Any individual or formal organization with standing before the courts.
10. The human genitalia; specifically, the penis.
11. A linguistic category used to distinguish between the speaker of an utterance and those to whom or about whom they are speaking. See grammatical person.
12. A shoot or bud of a plant; a polyp or zooid of the compound Hydrozoa, Anthozoa, etc.; also, an individual, in the narrowest sense, among the higher animals.