The words person and people are not related etymologically. Person comes from Latin persona, meaning "actor's mask; character in a play; person," while people comes from Latin populus, meaning "the people."
A person (pl.: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, or legal responsibility. [1][2][3][4] The defining features of ...
A person is a human being, especially in contrast with an animal, plant, or object, as in Layla was the only person in the room, so my cat gave her all its attention.
A person is an individual human being. At least one person died and several others were injured. Everyone knows he's the only person who can do the job. My great-grandfather was a person of some importance here. The amount of sleep we need varies from person to person.
Any of three groups of pronoun forms with corresponding verb inflections that distinguish the speaker (first person), the individual addressed (second person), and the individual or thing spoken of (third person).
The first person ("I" or "we") refers to the person speaking, the second person ("you") refers to the person being spoken to and the third person ("he," "she," "it," or "they") refers to another person or thing being spoken about or described:
There are 21 meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun person, one of which is labelled obsolete. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.
Police are pursuing a new lead based on photos and videos of an individual taken around 2 p.m. Saturday, hours before the deadly mass shooting at Brown University. Follow for live updates.
A person is an individual human being, distinguished from other non-human entities. The term can also denote a role or capacity in law, philosophy, and religion, extending beyond mere biological existence to encompass various roles and identities attributed to a human being.
Any of three groups of pronoun forms with corresponding verb inflections that distinguish the speaker (first person), the individual addressed (second person), and the individual or thing spoken of (third person).