personhood

[pur-suhn-hood]

noun

1. the state or fact of being a person.

2. the state or fact of being an individual or having human characteristics and feelings.

   a harsh prison system that deprives prisoners of their personhood.

personhood

/ ˈp£ːsənˌhʊd /

noun

1. the condition of being a person who is an individual with inalienable rights, esp under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States

Word History and Origins

Origin of personhood¹

First recorded in 1955–60; person + -hood

Example Sentences

Artists, acutely focused on the way we live now, can’t help paying close attention to the ramifications of AI not just in our work but in our notions of personhood.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

This category of besieged and suspect personhood inevitably expands to include political “enemies.”

Read more on Salon

Since the end of Reconstruction in Florida, the gifts and benefits of “personhood,” those who are deemed fit to receive first-class citizenship, have largely been limited to the Sunshine State’s hetero-white residents.

Read more on Salon

His literal personhood and what it symbolizes is a violation of America’s centuries-old racial order.

Read more on Salon

Her family had no choice in that decision; state law grants fetuses personhood and bans abortion after the point at which an ultrasound can detect cardiac activity in an embryo.

Read more on Salon