Everyman

[ev-ree-man]

noun

1. (italics),  a 15th-century English morality play.

2. (usually lowercase),  an ordinary person; the typical or average person.

pronoun

1. everybody; everyone.

Everyman

/ ˈɛvrɪˌmæn /

noun

1. a medieval English morality play in which the central figure represents mankind, whose earthly destiny is dramatized from the Christian viewpoint

2. (often not capital) the ordinary person; common man

Word History and Origins

Origin of Everyman¹

every + man

Example Sentences

Theater veteran Elizabeth Franz, who won a Tony Award for her bold reinvention as the wife of the everyman title character in the 1999 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” has died.

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Louis likens himself to Pierre, the main protagonist in War & Peace, who represents the "everyman" as the illegitimate son of a rich aristocrat who inherits a huge fortune, catapulting him into Russian high society.

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Kevin: I was going to say “handsome, relatable everyman,” but fine.

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It was while working at Sheffield Hallam that she took a creative writing course and honed her debut novel, which went on to sell more than a million copies in the UK alone and won the Bollinger Everyman Prize for Comic Fiction and the Waverton Good Read Award.

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Mr. Ciattarelli comes across as an everyman, concerned about his state’s future and offering common-sense ideas.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• anybody 
• everybody 
• people