people
Americannoun
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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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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:
The tragic accident sparked renewed calls for safety improvements along the 21-mile section of PCH in Malibu, one of the deadliest roads in the state, where 63 people have died since 2010.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
He said high living costs had made people more cautious, with the restaurant's previous three-month waiting list now down to two weeks.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
Meta has said the litigation is trying to fix a sprawling societal issue with a patchwork of court rulings that, if successful, wouldn’t stop young people from using other types of social media.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
Sometimes people forget that we are human beings practicing this discipline, and we bring all our concerns for our community into this space.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
Confession is one of the most important sacraments of the Catholic Church—a holy moment in which people can repent their wrongs.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
The two events converged in a coincidence of summer timing, and not only because they reflect ancient and modern cultural divergences among the peoples who are the heirs to a common classical heritage.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Even if ultimately the Ingalls and their neighbors can only slow down the inevitable, they learn to see each other clearly and value what the many hands of many peoples can make.
From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2026
During a meeting with the president, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of "a deep spiritual bond between our peoples".
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2026
In April, he attended the Free Land Camp, the largest annual gathering of Indigenous peoples, in Brasilia, the capital.
From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026
Neither of these terminal narratives explains why conflict between the colonizers and the Indigenous peoples continued for three hundred years before the United States was formed.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
He found the social rules and structure of working life easier to navigate but would often feel "bombarded" and "peopled out" by the end of a long day.
From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2024
The film is peopled by gaudy clichés in place of real human characters.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2024
No less a scribe than William Shakespeare claimed that bees “teach the act of order to a peopled kingdom.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 10, 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
They were holding a great flying-meet way up over the heads of the mourners and some of the nearby trees were already peopled with the stoop-shouldered forms.
From "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston
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
According to the museum’s website, Mr. Woodbury researched “potential connections between Indigenous communities to study human variation and support early anthropological theories around the peopling of North America.”
From New York Times ● Nov. 10, 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.
