people
Americannoun
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peoples
plural
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persons indefinitely or collectively; persons in general.
to find it easy to talk to people; What will people think?
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persons, whether men, women, or children, considered as numerable individuals forming a group.
Twenty people volunteered to help.
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human beings, as distinguished from animals or other beings.
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the entire body of persons who constitute a community, tribe, nation, or other group by virtue of a common culture, history, religion, or the like.
the people of Australia; the Jewish people.
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the persons of any particular group, company, or number (sometimes used in combination).
the people of a parish; educated people; salespeople.
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the ordinary persons, as distinguished from those who have wealth, rank, influence, etc..
a man of the people.
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the subjects, followers, or subordinates of a ruler, leader, employer, etc..
the king and his people.
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the body of enfranchised citizens of a state.
representatives chosen by the people.
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a person's family or relatives.
My grandmother's people came from Iowa.
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(used in the possessive in Communist or left-wing countries to indicate that an institution operates under the control of or for the benefit of the people, especially under Communist leadership).
people's republic; people's army.
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animals of a specified kind.
the monkey people of the forest.
verb (used with object)
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peoples,
present (3rd person singular)
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peopled,
past participle, past
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peopling
present participle
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to furnish with people; populate.
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to supply or stock as if with people.
a meadow peopled with flowers.
noun
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persons collectively or in general
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a group of persons considered together
blind people
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the persons living in a country and sharing the same nationality
the French people
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one's family
he took her home to meet his people
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persons loyal to someone powerful
the king's people accompanied him in exile
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the mass of persons without special distinction, privileges, etc
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the body of persons in a country, esp those entitled to vote
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verb
Grammar
Is the plural persons or people? See person.
Usage
People is usually followed by a plural verb and referred to by a plural pronoun: People are always looking for a bargain. The people have made their choice. The possessive is formed regularly, with the apostrophe before the -s: people's desire for a bargain; the people's choice. When people means “the entire body of persons who constitute a community or other group by virtue of a common culture, history, etc.,” it is used as a singular, with the plural peoples : This people shares characteristics with certain inhabitants of central Asia. The aboriginal peoples of the Western Hemisphere speak many different languages. The formation of the possessive is regular; the singular is people's and the plural is peoples '. At one time, some usage guides maintained that people could not be preceded by a number, as in Fewer than 30 people showed up. This use is now unquestionably standard in all contexts.
Synonym Usage
See race 2.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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peoplernoun
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outpeopleverb (used with object)
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peoplelessadjective
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underpeopledadjective
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well-peopledadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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peoplesimple
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peoplessimple
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have peopledperfect
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has peopledperfect
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am peoplingprogressive
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are peoplingprogressive
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is peoplingprogressive
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have been peoplingperfect progressive
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has been peoplingperfect progressive
Past
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peopledsimple
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had peopledperfect
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was peoplingprogressive
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were peoplingprogressive
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had been peoplingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of people
First recorded in 1225–75; Middle English peple, from Anglo-French poeple, Old French pueple, from Latin populus; see popular
Explanation
Human beings are people. Individuals, folks, humankind — we're all people. The word people is usually a noun, as in: two or more humans. It can also mean "all the citizens," as in a political leader who understands the needs of the people. People can also be a verb meaning "to inhabit or fill with people," as in: we need to people the empty seats so that tonight's speaker isn't disappointed with a small audience.
Vocabulary lists containing people
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
An estimated 700,000 people gathered for the Mass celebrated by the Pope from a special altar on the Place de la Concorde, on the second day of his four-day visit to France.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026
After the rally wrapped up, some activists set up a protest camp in city centre's Plaze de Sol square, the union said in a statement, urging people to gather there.
From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026
For the people who trusted Life Surge in part because they trusted him, what Tebow discovers may matter nearly as much as what regulators do.
From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026
Judging by the massive turnout of people on the streets of Paris, the pontiff is off to a good start.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
Throughout her life, people have often referred to her as a little girl, even in war zones, because she’s so small.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
"Let us keep advancing the cause of friendship between our two peoples and work together to build a better world," he said.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
She saw mythological narratives as vessels in which we can see essential truths about how peoples of the past understood their world and their place in it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
Savoonga - a village of around 800 residents, located on St Lawrence Island off Alaska's coast - is primarily inhabited by Siberian Yupik peoples.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
"I believe that only then will we be able to begin to heal and move forward -- not as adversaries, but as human beings and as peoples equal in dignity."
From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026
Although Native historians and scholars have written at length about how events in US history have impacted Indigenous peoples, their perspectives are not often included in history courses.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
The village was peopled with "extraordinary, eccentric, cosmopolitan people, defeated by life", some of whom would later reappear in her fiction.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2025
The film is peopled by gaudy clichés in place of real human characters.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2024
The system of transporting criminals to Siberia has proved, the more the territory became peopled with voluntary settlers, prejudicial to Siberia itself.
From New York Times ● May 21, 2024
"We want Dina Boluarte to resign," said Julio Saldivar, a protester from Ayacucho, where a dozen peopled died in December.
From Reuters ● Jan. 19, 2023
In those first years the roads were peopled with refugees shrouded up in their clothing.
From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
But he also may have been seeking to expand the notion of the American polity, peopling the Revolutionary moment with groups typically excluded from it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
"People like me who are interested in the peopling of the Americas are very interested in knowing if those first Americans came with dogs," Lanoë added.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 4, 2024
If they’re right, “it resets the playing field of what’s possible” in terms of how archaeologists understand the peopling of the Americas, says Loren Davis, an archaeologist at Oregon State University.
From Science Magazine ● Oct. 4, 2023
He collected stories and wrote his own, often basing them in a fictional town, Centralia, and peopling his tales with characters like Lunchbox, Co-op George, Martin Rosewater and Uncle Grover Bass.
From New York Times ● Oct. 20, 2022
The fractious archaeological community embraced his ideas with rare unanimity; they rapidly became the standard model for the peopling of the Americas.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
