Definitions for personˈpɜr sən

Random House Webster's College Dictionary

per•son^*ˈpɜr sən(n.)

a human being; a man, woman, or child.
a human being as distinguished from an animal or a thing.
the actual self or individual personality of a human being.
the body of a living human being, sometimes including the clothes being worn:
He had no money on his person.
the body in its external aspect.
a human being or other entity, as a partnership or corporation, recognized by law as having rights and duties.
Category: Law
a grammatical category applied esp. to pronouns and verbs, used to distinguish between the speaker of an utterance, the person addressed, and other people or things spoken about.
Category: Grammar
Ref: Compare first person, second person, third person.
any of the three modes of being in the Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Category: Religion

Idioms for person:

in person,in one's own bodily presence; personally.
Category: Idiom
one's own person,free from restrictions or influence; independent:
Now that she's working, she feels that she's her own person.

^* Usage: See individual, party, people.

Origin of person:

1175–1225; ME persone < L persōna role (in life, a play, or a tale) (LL: member of the Trinity), orig. actor's mask < Etruscan phersu (< Gk prósōpa face, mask) +-na a suffix

per′son•hood`(n.)

-person^*

a combining form of person , replacing in existing compound words such paired, sex-specific forms as -man and -woman or -er1 and -ess:
salesperson; waitperson.
Category: Common Vocabulary, Affix, Usage Note

^* Usage.: The -person compounds are used, esp. by the media and in government and business communications, to avoid the -man compounds (anchorman; businessman) for individuals of either sex or the -woman compounds (anchorwoman; businesswoman) to specify the individual's sex. Some find the new -person compounds unnecessary, regarding the long-used compounds in -man as generic, not sex-marked. Alternatives to some of the -person forms have won acceptance, as anchor and chair; other coinages, as congressmember, have had only marginal use. See also -ess, lady, -man, -woman.

Princeton's WordNet

person, individual, someone, somebody, mortal, soul(noun)
a human being
"there was too much for one person to do"
person(noun)
a human body (usually including the clothing)
"a weapon was hidden on his person"
person(noun)
a grammatical category used in the classification of pronouns, possessive determiners, and verb forms according to whether they indicate the speaker, the addressee, or a third party
"stop talking about yourself in the third person"

Kernerman English Learner's Dictionary

person(noun)ˈpɜr sən
a human being
What sort of person would steal money from a child?; He's the one person I thought I could trust.
personˈpɜr sən
done yourself and not by letter, on the telephone, etc.
You can apply for your passport online or in person.

Wiktionary

person(Noun)
A single human being; an individual.
person(Noun)
The physical human body seen as distinct from the mind, character etc.
person(Noun)
Any individual or formal organization with standing before the courts.
By common law a corporation or a trust is legally a person.
person(Noun)
A linguistic category used to distinguish between the speaker of an utterance and those to whom or about whom he is speaking. See grammatical person.
person(Noun)
Someone who likes or has an affinity for (a specified thing).
Jack's always been a dog person, but I prefer cats.

Origin: From parsone, persoun et al. (Old French persone, French personne), and its source persona, perhaps a loanword; compare Etruscan φersu. Displaced native wight (from wiht).

Webster Dictionary

Person(noun)
a character or part, as in a play; a specific kind or manifestation of individual character, whether in real life, or in literary or dramatic representation; an assumed character
Person(noun)
the bodily form of a human being; body; outward appearance; as, of comely person
Person(noun)
a living, self-conscious being, as distinct from an animal or a thing; a moral agent; a human being; a man, woman, or child
Person(noun)
a human being spoken of indefinitely; one; a man; as, any person present
Person(noun)
a parson; the parish priest
Person(noun)
among Trinitarians, one of the three subdivisions of the Godhead (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost); an hypostasis
Person(noun)
one of three relations or conditions (that of speaking, that of being spoken to, and that of being spoken of) pertaining to a noun or a pronoun, and thence also to the verb of which it may be the subject
Person(noun)
a shoot or bud of a plant; a polyp or zooid of the compound Hydrozoa Anthozoa, etc.; also, an individual, in the narrowest sense, among the higher animals
Person(verb)
to represent as a person; to personify; to impersonate