Sentence:  Nothing in all the preceding years had had the power to bring me closer to a knowledge of profound sorrow than the breakup of camp , the packing away of my camp uniforms , the severing of ties with the six or ten <WSD>people</WSD> I had grown most to love in the world . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  (plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively