person-to-person
Americanadjective
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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.
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(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
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face-to-face; in person.
They interviewed her person-to-person.
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(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.
Experts say person-to-person transmission of the virus occurs only with close and prolonged contact.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026
Days later, he learned that the severe disease typically carried by rodents may have transmitted person-to-person.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 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
Radio-Television Frangaise flew a crew of five from Paris to do a television show of the person-to-person type at my home in Mansfield.
From "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin
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.
