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:
On average nearly 1,000 people a day are being put on PIP, according to government figures.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026
But he says too many people just use it to top up their income and don’t get jobs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026
Some are aimed at people who are too sick to work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026
Among those who got new cars last year: 40 people whose primary medical condition was tennis elbow, 50 with wheat intolerance and 320 with dyslexia, according to government figures.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026
Whatever Phineas's problems with people, he gets on well with horses.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said she had been a "pioneering defence attorney for anti-apartheid activists" who had worked to "uphold human dignity and bring hope in South Africa and to peoples globally".
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
Foran said that at the time, the colonies that later became Canada relied on Great Britain and its Royal Navy for its defence, as well as indigenous peoples who served as generals in major battles.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026
"We must grasp the historical significance of what is taking place, namely an unprecedented encounter between peoples and cultures."
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
The author of “The Sea-King and the Sorceress” on the lives and stories of the Nordic peoples who swept through Europe in the Middle Ages.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
They traveled on overland and water routes the Indigenous peoples made, and ultimately, they used those routes to move their armies in wars against Indigenous nations and other European nations.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"It's a huge office that was all about men and money, and we've peopled it with a kind of female anarchy, which feels really exciting," said writer Rebecca Lenkiewicz, who set up the project.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026
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
"The Palace", a comedy set in a Swiss hotel peopled with a cast of grotesque characters, stars Mickey Rourke, John Cleese, Oliver Masucci, Fanny Ardant and Joaquim De Almeida.
From Reuters ● Sep. 2, 2023
The men who peopled the grill in the early hours of morning were not just regulars to the restaurant, they were regulars to the town and their family names were on street signs and monuments.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
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.
