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• person
  person

  noun

  a human being, whether an adult or child.
• -person
  -person

  a combining form of person, replacing paired, gender-specific forms such as -man and -woman or -er1 and -ess:
• Person
  Person

  noun

  Christianity any of the three hypostases existing as distinct in the one God and constituting the Trinity. They are the First Person, the Father, the Second Person, the Son, and the Third Person, the Holy Ghost

person

¹ American  

[pur-suhn] / ˈpɜr sən /

noun

• persons
  plural

1. a human being, whether an adult or child.

   The table seats four persons.

2. a human being as distinguished from an animal or a thing.

3. an individual human being who likes or prefers something specified (used in combination).

   I've never been a cat person.

4. Sociology. an individual human being, especially with reference to social relationships and behavioral patterns as conditioned by the culture.

5. Philosophy. a self-conscious or rational being.

6. the actual self or individual personality of a human being.

   You ought not to generalize, but to consider the person you are dealing with.

7. the body of a living human being, sometimes including the clothes being worn.

   He had no money on his person.

8. the body in its external aspect.

   an attractive person to look at.

9. a character, part, or role, as in a play or story.

10. an individual of distinction or importance.

11. a person not entitled to social recognition or respect.

12. Law. a human being natural person or a group of human beings, a corporation, a partnership, an estate, or other legal entity artificial person, or juristic person recognized by law as having rights and duties.

13. Grammar. a category found in many languages that is used to distinguish between the speaker of an utterance and the person or people being spoken to or about. In English there are three persons in the pronouns, the first represented by I and we, the second by you, and the third by he, she, it, and they. Most verbs have distinct third person singular forms in the present tense, as writes; the verb be has, in addition, a first person singular form am.

14. Theology. any of the three hypostases or modes of being in the Trinity, namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

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idioms

1. be one's own person, to be free from restrictions, control, or dictatorial influence.

   Now that she's working, she feels that she's her own person.

2. in person, in one's own bodily presence; personally.

   Applicants are requested to apply in person.

-person ² American  

1. a combining form of person, replacing paired, gender-specific forms such as -man and -woman or -er1 and -ess:

   chairperson;

   salesperson;

   waitperson.

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person ¹ British  

/ ˈpɜːsən /

noun

1. an individual human being

2. the body of a human being, sometimes including his or her clothing

   guns hidden on his person

3. a grammatical category into which pronouns and forms of verbs are subdivided depending on whether they refer to the speaker, the person addressed, or some other individual, thing, etc

4. a human being or a corporation recognized in law as having certain rights and obligations

5. philosophy a being characterized by consciousness, rationality, and a moral sense, and traditionally thought of as consisting of both a body and a mind or soul

6. archaic a character or role; guise

7. 1. actually present

      the author will be there in person

   2. without the help or intervention of others

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-person ² British  

suffix

1. sometimes used instead of -man and -woman or -lady

   chairperson

   salesperson

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Person ³ British  

/ ˈpɜːsən /

noun

1. Christianity any of the three hypostases existing as distinct in the one God and constituting the Trinity. They are the First Person, the Father, the Second Person, the Son, and the Third Person, the Holy Ghost

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person Cultural  

1. An inflectional form (see inflection) of pronouns and verbs that distinguishes between the person who speaks (first person), the person who is spoken to (second person), and the person who is spoken about (third person). The pronoun or verb may be singular or plural. For example:

   first person singular: I walk.

   second person singular: you walk.

   third person singular: he/she/it walks.

   first person plural: we walk.

   second person plural: you walk.

   third person plural: they walk.

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person More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing person

• feel like oneself (a new person)
• in person
• own person, one's

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Grammar

There is understandable confusion about the plural of this word. Is it persons or people? Person —like other regular English nouns—constructs its grammatical plural by adding -s, forming persons. This has been so since person came into Middle English in the late twelfth century. But as far back as the fourteenth century, some writers, including the poet Chaucer, were using an entirely different word— people, not persons —as the functional plural of person. And today, people seems more natural, especially in casual, informal conversation or writing. 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

See individual, party.

People is the word usually used to refer to more than one individual: there were a hundred people at the reception. Persons is rarely used, except in official English: several persons were interviewed

Synonym Usage

Person, individual, personage are terms applied to human beings. Person is the most general and common word: the average person. Individual views a person as standing alone or as a single member of a group: the characteristics of the individual; its implication is sometimes derogatory: a disagreeable individual. Personage is used (sometimes ironically) of an outstanding or illustrious person: We have a distinguished personage visiting us today.

Gender

The -person compounds are increasingly used, especially in the press, on radio and television, and in government and corporate communications, with the object of avoiding gender discrimination in language. Earlier practice was to use -man as the final element in such compounds regardless of the gender of the person referred to ( anchorman; businessman ) or to use -woman when referring to a woman ( anchorwoman; businesswoman ). Some object to these new -person compounds on the grounds that they are awkward or unnecessary, insisting that the equivalent compounds with -man are generic, not gender-marked. Others reject the -man compounds as discriminatory when applied to women or to people whose gender is unknown, irrelevant, or nonbinary. To resolve the argument, certain terms can be successfully shortened ( anchor; chair ). See also chairperson, -ess, lady, -man, -woman.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• superperson
  noun
• multiperson
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• persons
  plural

Etymology

Origin of person

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English persone, from Latin persōna “role” (in life, a play, or a tale) ( Late Latin: “member of the Trinity”), originally “actor's mask,” from Etruscan phersu (from Greek prósōpa “face, mask”) + -na a suffix

Explanation

A human being is called a person, and while this applies to an actual individual, it also, in grammar, means the type of person — first person being "I/me," second person being "you," and third person being "he/him," "she/her," or "they/them." The Latin persōna referred to an actor's mask that created the character being played. This later came to mean "human being," a meaning it still conveys. You can also use it to refer to a person's physical body. I wouldn't recommend crossing the border with any illegal items on your person. Nowadays, the word person replaces "man" to avoid sexism in words such as "congressperson."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

person -person Person persons

A normal person would have the good sense to scale back or shrink away.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026

The 30-year-old has apologised for his actions and said he hopes to say sorry to the spectator in person.

From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026

Fears were initially raised when some regional officials and media reported that the woman died of pneumonic plague, which can spread person to person.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

Family dynamics run deep, and sorting through the complications involved in restricting a connection to the outside world or keeping tabs on an older person will look different for every household.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026

“Nothing you do will make him be the person you want him to be, and you don’t have to be anyone you don’t want to be.”

From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam

Kutting Edge Fitness, which has locations in Kirkland and Issaquah, used to run 12-to-15 -person classes, and four-person classes in its 4,000-square foot space.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 7, 2020

Handing out twice as many prizes in the Best Picture, Actor and Actress categories as the Academy does, the Globes often sets up two-film or -person races: vs.

From Time ● Jan. 16, 2012

We have now largely progressed to a point where such person-v. -person disputes are settled un der the rule of law in the courts.

From Time Magazine Archive

Swift, now with 32 Moon Person statues, showed her thanks during the ceremony by debuting the music video for her new single, “Patient Zero.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026

The singer disclosed in 2022 that she had been was diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome, an incurable autoimmune disorder.

From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026

Readers of two Iranian newspapers in 2013 voted him third in Person of the Year polls, trailing only then-President Hassan Rouhani and his foreign minister, Javad Zarif.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026

The action is the second brought on behalf of Person, who competed internationally for the United States from 1999 to 2007.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 23, 2026

It said: Person well disposed to the English.

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy

The administration says it seeks assurances from those countries that the deported persons will not be not be abused or persecuted, but it refuses hearings for individuals.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026

"He's been one of the persons I admire the most in how he conducted himself in all of this," said Hallgrimsson.

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026

It added that measures restricting the bank's activities in the lending business, and in relation to entering into new business relationships with politically exposed persons from high-risk countries, had been lifted or relaxed.

From Barron's ● Sep. 29, 2026

Police say the information provides unprecedented ability to identify suspects, pinpoint stolen vehicles and locate missing persons.

From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026

And yet persons here and there declined to migrate; that, even to those involved, constituted a perplexing irrationality.

From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick

Related Words

• body
• character
• customer
• guy
• human
• individual
• life
• man
• somebody
• woman