Everyman
Americannoun
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(italics) a 15th-century English morality play.
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(usually lowercase) an ordinary person; the typical or average person.
pronoun
noun
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a medieval English morality play in which the central figure represents mankind, whose earthly destiny is dramatized from the Christian viewpoint
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(often not capital) the ordinary person; common man
Etymology
Origin of Everyman
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.
Berenger, a character who appears in different guises in several of his plays, is Ionesco’s version of Everyman.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2026
After a loss, the grieving Everyman finds no option but to keep living—he is, as one character says, “just waiting to see what we’ve been left here for.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 26, 2025
On Sunday at the Everyman theatre in nearby Cheltenham, she was in conversation with broadcaster Richard Bacon, who asked whether reports that she moved because of Donald Trump were correct.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2025
That colors Ben as the quintessential 2025 American Everyman – he’s non-judgmental, not entirely immune to disinformation, but also questions behavior and developments that might have been plausible a decade ago.
From Salon ● Jan. 21, 2025
Charles the Fifth had no less than nine hundred and ten volumes, so that his personal collection was about as big as the Everyman Library is today.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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.
