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.
Yep, old-fashioned PBX boards picking up long-distance calls, coin-box calls, person-to-person.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 7, 2026
“Whereas in Chile, person-to-person transmission is rare, but when it occurs, it tends to occur in small clusters within families living in the same home, and no more than a handful of cases per cluster.”
From MarketWatch • May 4, 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
It can also spread person-to-person through contaminated food.
From BBC • Jan. 27, 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.
