person-to-person
Americanadjective
-
involving direct contact or exchange between individuals: Diplomacy requires person-to-person encounters at the highest levels of government.
The disease is spread through person-to-person contact.
Diplomacy requires person-to-person encounters at the highest levels of government.
-
(of a long-distance telephone call) chargeable only upon speaking with a specified person at the number called.
She made a person-to-person call to her brother in California.
adverb
-
face-to-face; in person.
They interviewed her person-to-person.
-
(in making a long-distance telephone call) to a specified person.
I telephoned him person-to-person.
Etymology
Origin of person-to-person
First recorded in 1915–20
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.
“That’s one of the reasons that makes it much more difficult to transmit person-to-person, and is the reason why this is just not going to turn into a pandemic,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026
Yep, old-fashioned PBX boards picking up long-distance calls, coin-box calls, person-to-person.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026
The Andes virus is an outlier, in that there are documented instances of person-to-person transmission.
From MarketWatch ● May 6, 2026
"We have to take this very seriously. We have to shake hands eye-to-eye, person-to-person, and to discuss what is best for the US and Brazil."
From Barron's ● Feb. 22, 2026
Maybe that was enough for the telephone operator to help me call him person-to-person from a phone booth.
From "P.S. Be Eleven" by Rita Williams-Garcia
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.
