What does person mean?

Definitions for person
ˈpɜr sənper·son

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word person.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. person, individual, someone, somebody, mortal, soulnoun

    a human being

    "there was too much for one person to do"

  2. personnoun

    a human body (usually including the clothing)

    "a weapon was hidden on his person"

  3. personnoun

    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"

Wiktionary

  1. personnoun

    A single human being; an individual.

  2. personnoun

    The physical human body seen as distinct from the mind, character etc.

  3. personnoun

    Any individual or formal organization with standing before the courts.

    By common law a corporation or a trust is legally a person.

  4. personnoun

    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.

  5. personnoun

    Someone who likes or has an affinity for (a specified thing).

    Jack's always been a dog person, but I prefer cats.

  6. Etymology: 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).

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. PERSONnoun

    Etymology: personne, Fr. persona, Lat.

    A person is a thinking intelligent being, that has reason and reflection, and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing, in different times and places. John Locke.

    A zeal for persons is far more easy to be perverted, than a zeal for things. Thomas Sprat, Sermons.

    To that we owe the safety of our persons and the propriety of our possessions. Francis Atterbury, Sermons.

    ’Tis in her heart alone that you must reign;
    You’ll find her person difficult to gain. Dryden.

    If I am traduc’d by tongues which neither know
    My faculties nor person;
    ’Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake
    That virtue must go through. William Shakespeare, Henry VIII.

    The rebels maintained the fight for a small time, and for their persons shewed no want of courage. Francis Bacon.

    Be a person ’s attainments ever so great, he should always remember, that he is God’s creature. Clarissa.

    When I purposed to make a war by my lieutenant, I made declaration thereof to you by my chancellor; but now that I mean to make a war upon France in person, I will declare it to you myself. Francis Bacon, Henry VII.

    The king in person visits all around,
    Comforts the sick, congratulates the sound,
    And holds for thrice three days a royal feast. Dryden.

    For her own person,
    It beggar’d all description. William Shakespeare.

    All things are lawful unto me, saith the apostle, speaking, as it seemeth, in the person of the christian gentile for the maintenance of liberty in things indifferent. Richard Hooker.

    These tables Marcus Tullius Cicero pronounced under the person of Crassus, were of more use and authority than all the books of the philosophers. Thomas Baker, Reflections on Learning.

    From his first appearance upon the stage, in his new person of a sycophant or jugler, instead of his former person of a prince, he was exposed to the derision of the courtiers and the common people, who flocked about him, that one might know where the owl was, by the flight of birds. Francis Bacon.

    He hath put on the person not of a robber and a murtherer, but of a traitor to the state. John Hayward.

    I then did use the person of your father;
    The image of his power lay then in me:
    And in th’ administration of his law,
    While I was busy for the commonwealth,
    Your highness pleased to forget my place. William Shakespeare.

    How different is the same man from himself, as he sustains the person of a magistrate and that of a friend. South.

    Dorus the more blushed at her smiling, and she the more smiled at his blushing; because he had, with the remembrance of that plight he was in, forgot in speaking of himself the third person. Philip Sidney.

    If speaking of himself in the first person singular has so various meanings, his use of the first person plural is with greater latitude. John Locke.

ChatGPT

  1. person

    A person is a unique individual, typically belonging to the human species, possessing self-awareness, consciousness, and the ability to think, learn, communicate, and act intentionally.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Personnoun

    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

  2. Personnoun

    the bodily form of a human being; body; outward appearance; as, of comely person

  3. Personnoun

    a living, self-conscious being, as distinct from an animal or a thing; a moral agent; a human being; a man, woman, or child

  4. Personnoun

    a human being spoken of indefinitely; one; a man; as, any person present

  5. Personnoun

    a parson; the parish priest

  6. Personnoun

    among Trinitarians, one of the three subdivisions of the Godhead (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost); an hypostasis

  7. Personnoun

    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

  8. Personnoun

    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

  9. Personverb

    to represent as a person; to personify; to impersonate

  10. Etymology: [OE. persone, persoun, person, parson, OF. persone, F. personne, L. persona a mask (used by actors), a personage, part, a person, fr. personare to sound through; per + sonare to sound. See Per-, and cf. Parson.]

Wikidata

  1. Person

    A person is a being, such as a human, that has certain capacities or attributes constituting personhood, which in turn is defined differently by different authors in different disciplines, and by different cultures in different times and places. In ancient Rome, the word "persona" or "prosopon" originally referred to the masks worn by actors on stage. The various masks represented the various "personae" in the stage play. The current concept of person was developed during the Trinitarian and Christological debates of the 4th and 5th centuries in contrast to the word natura. During the theological debates, some philosophical tools were needed so that the debates could be held on common basis to all theological schools. The purpose of the debate was to establish the relation, similarities and differences between the Λóγος/"Verbum" and God. The philosophical concept of person arose, taking the word "prosopon" from the Greek theatre. Therefore, Christus and God were defined as different "persons". This concept was applied later to the Holy Ghost, the angels and to all human beings. Since then, a number of important changes to the word's meaning and use have taken place, and attempts have been made to redefine the word with varying degrees of adoption and influence. In addition to the question of personhood, of what makes a being count as a person to begin with, there are further questions about personal identity: both about what makes any particular person that particular person instead of another, and about what makes a person at one time the same person as he or she was or will be at another time despite any intervening changes. The common plural of "person", "people", is often used to refer to an entire nation or ethnic group, so the plural "persons" is often used in contexts which require precision such as philosophical and legal writing.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Person

    pėr′sun, n. character represented, as on the stage: character: an individual, sometimes used slightingly: a living soul: a human being: the outward appearance, &c.: bodily form: one of the three hypostases or individualities in the triune God: (gram.) a distinction in form, according as the subject of the verb is the person speaking, spoken to, or spoken of.—adj. Per′sonable, having a well-formed body or person: of good appearance.—n. Per′sonāge, a person: character represented: an individual of eminence: external appearance.—adj. Per′sonal, belonging to a person: having the nature or quality of a person: peculiar to a person or to his private concerns: pertaining to the external appearance: done in person: relating to one's own self: applied offensively to one's character: (gram.) denoting the person.—n. Personalisā′tion, personification.—v.t. Per′sonalise, to make personal.—ns. Per′sonalism, the character of being personal; Per′sonalist, one who writes personal notes; Personal′ity, that which distinguishes a person from a thing, or one person from another: individuality: a derogatory remark or reflection directly applied to a person—esp. in pl. Personal′ities.—adv. Per′sonally, in a personal or direct manner: in person: individually.—n. Per′sonalty (law), all the property which, when a man dies, goes to his executor or administrator, as distinguished from the realty, which goes to his heir-at-law.—v.t. Per′sonāte, to assume the likeness or character of: to represent: to counterfeit: to feign.—adj. (bot.) mask-like, as in the corollary of the snapdragon: larval, cucullate.—adj. Per′sonāted, impersonated, feigned, assumed.—ns. Personā′tion; Per′sonātor.—n. Personisā′tion.—v.t. Per′sonise, to personify.—n. Personnel′, the persons employed in any service, as distinguished from the materiel.—Personal estate, property, movable goods or property, as distinguished from freehold or real property, esp. in land; Personal exception (Scots law), a ground of objection which applies to an individual and prevents him from doing something which, but for his conduct or situation, he might do; Personal identity, the continued sameness of the individual person, through all changes both without and within, as testified by consciousness; Personal rights, rights which belong to the person as a living, reasonable being; Personal security, security or pledge given by a person, as distinguished from the delivery of some object of value as security; Personal service, delivery of a message or an order into a person's hands, as distinguished from delivery in any other indirect way; Personal transaction, something done by a person's own effort, not through the agency of another.—In person, by one's self, not by a representative. [Fr.,—L. persōna, a player's mask, perh. from persŏnāre, -ātumper, through, sonāre, to sound.]

Editors Contribution

  1. person

    A human being.

    The person did say we are all accountable for the actions of humanity and it was the truth.


    Submitted by MaryC on February 15, 2020  

Suggested Resources

  1. person

    Quotes by person -- Explore a large variety of famous quotes made by person on the Quotes.net website.

  2. person

    Song lyrics by person -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by person on the Lyrics.com website.

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. PERSON

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Person is ranked #496 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Person surname appeared 67,411 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 23 would have the surname Person.

    45.5% or 30,726 total occurrences were White.
    34.5% or 23,264 total occurrences were Black.
    12.8% or 8,683 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
    4.1% or 2,791 total occurrences were Asian.
    1.7% or 1,200 total occurrences were of two or more races.
    1.1% or 755 total occurrences were American Indian or Alaskan Native.

British National Corpus

  1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'person' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #369

  2. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'person' in Written Corpus Frequency: #383

  3. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'person' in Nouns Frequency: #87

Anagrams for person »

  1. nopers

  2. preons

  3. spreon

How to pronounce person?

How to say person in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of person in Chaldean Numerology is: 3

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of person in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of person in a Sentence

  1. President Obama:

    The larger point that I want to emphasize here is that there is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even -- you could even rig America's elections, and so I'd advise Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes.

  2. United Nations:

    As I appeal to the international community to step up support for the people of Afghanistan, I make an equally urgent plea to the Taliban leadership to recognize and protect the fundamental human rights that every person shares.

  3. Barack Obama:

    I plan to fulfill my constitutional responsibility to appoint a successor in due time and there will be plenty of time for me to do so and for the Senate to give that person a fair hearing and timely vote.

  4. Charles Knight:

    Anybody who accepts mediocrity - in school, on the job, in life - is a person who compromises, and when the leader compromises, the whole organization compromises.

  5. Dakota Johnson:

    I’m not the type of person that goes to a lot of parties, i cherish my solitude and I think it’s important for young women, especially now, to know that it’s OK to explore the world and yourself without the pressures of other people’s opinions of you.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

person#1#532#10000

Translations for person

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"person." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/person>.

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    a defeat in which the losing person or team fails to score
    A recital
    B whitewash
    C jab
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