person
noun
Origin of person
Synonym study
Grammar note
Using people as a plural of person has not always been free of controversy. From the mid nineteenth to the late twentieth century, the use of people instead of persons was hotly contested; and among some news publications, book publishers, and writers of usage books, it was expressly forbidden. To quell the fires of the argument, some usage authorities attempted to regulate use of the two forms—recommending persons when counting a small, specific number of individuals ( Three persons were injured in the accident ) and people when referring to a large, round, or uncountable number ( More than two thousand people bought tickets on the first day; People crowded around the exhibit, blocking it from view ).
But efforts to impose such precise rules in language usually fail. This rule does not appear in currently popular style manuals, and if such a rule still exists in anyone's mind, it is mainly ignored. People is the plural form that most people are most comfortable with most of the time. Persons seems excessively formal and stilted in ordinary conversation or casual writing. One would probably not say, “How many persons came to your birthday party?” In legal or formal contexts, however, persons is often the form of choice ( The police are looking for any person or persons who may have witnessed the crime; Occupancy by more than 75 persons is prohibited by the fire marshal ). In addition, persons is often used when we pluralize person in a set phrase ( missing persons; persons of interest ). Otherwise, the modern consensus is that people is the preferred plural. Persons is not wrong, but it is increasingly rare.
Usage note
-person
Usage note
Related Words for person
customer, body, life, woman, somebody, character, individual, human, guy, man, joker, individuality, being, specimen, soul, personage, self, identity, mortal, partyExamples from the Web for person
Contemporary Examples of person
Scalise never would have spoken to EURO had Duke been there in person.
Pentagon leaders agree to a person that the U.S. war against ISIS is succeeding.
I meant no harm by it, but I remembered how this person talked, and I did it for my Mom and she was not into it.
Coffee Talk with Fred Armisen: On ‘Portlandia,’ Meeting Obama, and Taylor Swift’s GreatnessMarlow Stern
January 7, 2015
And “what kind of person,” Steinberg asks, “dares to write a sequel to the Bible?”
The odds of getting re-arrested are a lot slimmer if a person has a job.
Historical Examples of person
I ain't ever met a person yet was satisfied with the hole they was in.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
Ambrose was the only person who ever received any communication from Giles Headley.
The Armourer's PrenticesCharlotte M. Yonge
As Mr. Sanborn says of her, "she is too real a person, not to be true."
Harriet, The Moses of Her PeopleSarah H. Bradford
I am always thankful to any person that brought me into city of Perth.
Explorations in AustraliaJohn Forrest
In the hands of nearly every third person was a printed paper.