people
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈpiː.pl̩/
ipa: [ˈpʰiː.pɫ̩]
ipa: /ˈpi.pl̩/
ipa: [ˈpʰi.pɫ̩]
ipa: /pʰipu/
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈpipɨl/
note: Indic
ipa: /-ɐl/
ipa: /ˈpipol/
homophone: papal
homophone: peepul
rhymes: -iːpəl
Forms: form: peoples
form: peeps
form: peops
form: peple
form: pipple
form: ppl
form: ppl.
Etymology: From Middle English puple, peple, peeple, from Anglo-Norman people, from Old French pueple, peuple, pople, from Latin populus (“a people, nation”), from Old Latin populus, from earlier poplus, from even earlier poplos, from Proto-Italic *poplos (“army”) of unknown origin. Doublet of pueblo. Gradually ousted native English lede and, partially, folk.
Originally used with singular verbs (e.g. "the people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness" in the King James Version of 2 Samuel 17:29), the plural aspect of people is probably due to influence from Middle English lede, leed, a plural since Old English times; see lēode.
Senses: examples: text: There were so many people at the restaurant last night.
text: These six people are waiting for the bus.
text: Under dictatorship, people suffered and died.
text: XXII people was in this parrish drownd.
ref: c. 1607, plaque recording the Bristol Channel floods
text: "What a charming amusement for young people this is, Mr. Darcy! There is nothing like dancing after all. I consider it as one of the first refinements of polished society."
ref: 1813, Jane Austen, chapter 6, in Pride and Prejudice, →OCLC:
text: There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs,[…], and all these articles[…]made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: “[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like
 Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer.[…]”
ref: 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
text: But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.
ref: 2013 June 1, “Towards the end of poverty”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, archived from the original on 23 Oct 2018, page 11:
text: The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about[…], or offering services that let you[…]"share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.
ref: 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “Conscious computing: how to take control of your life online”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, archived from the original on 24 Aug 2013, page 27:
text: Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.
ref: 2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2018, pages 72–3:
synonyms: word: peeps
word: lede
word: leod
glosses: plural of person: a body of persons considered generally or collectively; a group of two or more persons.
examples: text: a people apart
text: an industrious people
text: the indigenous peoples of Europe
text: the native peoples of Borneo
text: `So, oh Holly. This people was an old people before the Egyptians were.'
ref: 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
text: The team auctioned off the right to name the new species to publicize the find and raise awareness and funds for the indigenous Lahu people of northern Thailand, a group that Sippawat is part of.
ref: 2023 September 26, Hafsa Khalil, “Electric blue tarantula species discovered in Thailand”, in CNN:
synonyms: collective
community
congregation
folk
coordinate_terms: word: nation
english: sometimes synonymous
translation: sometimes synonymous
glosses: Persons forming or belonging to a particular group, such as a nation, class, ethnic group, country, family, etc.
examples: text: Moses said, "Let my people go."
text: his people were weary
text: And Dauid reigned ouer all Iſrael, and Dauid executed iudgement and iuſtice vnto all his people.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Samuel 8:15, column 1:
text: The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master's crib; but Israel does not know, my people does not understand.
ref: 1952, Old Testament, Revised Standard Version, Thomas Nelson & Sons, Isaiah 1:3
synonyms: fans
groupies
supporters
glosses: A group of persons regarded as being servants, followers, companions or subjects of a ruler or leader.
examples: text: I'll have my people call your people.
text: I have my people working on it.
text: Kennedy looked down at Flood's desk and thought about the possibilities. "Can you locate him?"
"I already have my people checking on all three. So far I've only been able to confirm the whereabouts of the Jordanian officer."
ref: 2001, Vince Flynn, Transfer of Power (fiction), Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 250:
text: Can I have one of my people get back to your people, Mr. President?" She tried to slam the phone back into the base and failed.
ref: 2008, Fern Michaels, Hokus Pokus (fiction), →ISBN, page 184:
glosses: One's colleagues or employees.
examples: text: My people lived through the Black Plague and the Thirty Years War.
text: His people live out west.
synonyms: kin
kith
folks
glosses: A person's ancestors, relatives or family.
examples: text: The people have successfully stood up against tyranny and totalitarianism.
text: The election is over and the people have spoken.
text: The people won't tolerate so much corruption any more!
text: The people have spoken, the bastards.
ref: 1966, Dick Tuck, Concession Speech:
synonyms: populace
commoners
citizenry
glosses: The mass of a community as distinguished from a special class (elite); the commonalty; the populace; the vulgar; the common crowd; the citizens.
examples: text: People don't like it when you tweak their noses.
text: Teachers are people too.
glosses: People in general, humans, by extension sentient beings real or fictional.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from people
word: abbot of the people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: all things to all people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: antipeople
sense: Terms derived from people
word: bag people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: beaker people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: beautiful people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: black people's time
sense: Terms derived from people
word: boat people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: bright young people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: Chosen People
sense: Terms derived from people
word: chosen people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: depeople
sense: Terms derived from people
word: dispeople
sense: Terms derived from people
word: elle-people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: empeople
sense: Terms derived from people
word: enemy of the people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: fire people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: flying purple people-eater
sense: Terms derived from people
word: flying purple people eater
sense: Terms derived from people
word: good people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: hillspeople
sense: Terms derived from people
word: hurt people hurt people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: little people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: louder for the people at the back
sense: Terms derived from people
word: man of the people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: mean people suck
sense: Terms derived from people
word: meeple
sense: Terms derived from people
word: my people yearn for freedom
sense: Terms derived from people
word: nobody ever went broke underestimating the good taste of the American people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: of all people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: old people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: old people's home
sense: Terms derived from people
word: overpeople
sense: Terms derived from people
word: Peculiar People
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people-carrier
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people carrier
sense: Terms derived from people
word: peopledom
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people-first language
sense: Terms derived from people
word: peoplehood
sense: Terms derived from people
word: peopleize
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people journalism
sense: Terms derived from people
word: peoplekind
sense: Terms derived from people
word: peopleless
sense: Terms derived from people
word: peoplemeter
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people mountain people sea
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people mover
sense: Terms derived from people
word: peopleness
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people of God
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people person
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people-person
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people pleaser
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people-pod
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people pod
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people power
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people's army
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people's commune
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people's democracy
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people's detailing
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people's house
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people sit on chairs
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people skills
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people's mic
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people's microphone
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people smuggler
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people smuggling
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people sniffer
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people's palace
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people's party
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people's princess
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people's republic
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people's war
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people's warden
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people's warrior
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people that live in glass houses should not throw stones
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people that live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones
sense: Terms derived from people
word: peopleware
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people-watch
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people watching
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people-watching
sense: Terms derived from people
word: peoplewatching
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people who live in glass houses should not throw stones
sense: Terms derived from people
word: people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones
sense: Terms derived from people
word: peopley
sense: Terms derived from people
word: peoplish
sense: Terms derived from people
word: plain people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: plainspeople
sense: Terms derived from people
word: Prayers of the People
sense: Terms derived from people
word: repeople
sense: Terms derived from people
word: September people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: some people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: some people have all the luck
sense: Terms derived from people
word: those people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: tribespeople
sense: Terms derived from people
word: underground people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: unpeople
sense: Terms derived from people
word: up the country people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: woman of the people
sense: Terms derived from people
word: you people
Related terms: sheeple