Adjacent Words

People definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PEOPLE, n. [L. populus.]
1. The body of persons who compose a community, town, city or nation. We say, the people of a town; the people of London or Paris; the English people. In this sense, the word is not used in the plural, but it comprehends all classes of inhabitants, considered as a collective body, or any portion of the inhabitants of a city or country.
2. The vulgar; the mass of illiterate persons.
The knowing artist may judge better than the people.
3. The commonalty, as distinct from men of rank.
Myself shall mount the rostrum in his favor,
And strive to gain his pardon from the people.
4. Persons of a particular class; a part of a nation or community; as country people.
5. Persons in general; any persons indefinitely; like on in French, and man in Saxon.
People were tempted to lend by great premiums and large interest.
6. A collection or community of animals.
The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer. Proverbs 30.
7. When people signified a separate nation or tribe, it has the plural number.
Thou must prophesy again before many peoples. Revelation 10.
8. In Scripture, fathers or kindred. Genesis 25.
9. The Gentiles.
--To him shall the gathering of the people be. Genesis 49.
PEOPLE, v.t. To stock with inhabitants. Emigrants from Europe have peopled the United States.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: (plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively; "old people"; "there were at least 200 people in the audience"
2: the body of citizens of a state or country; "the Spanish people" [syn: citizenry, people]
3: members of a family line; "his people have been farmers for generations"; "are your people still alive?"
4: the common people generally; "separate the warriors from the mass"; "power to the people" [syn: multitude, masses, mass, hoi polloi, people, the great unwashed] v
1: fill with people; "Stalin wanted to people the empty steppes"
2: furnish with people; "The plains are sparsely populated"

Merriam Webster's

I. noun (plural people) Etymology: Middle English peple, from Anglo-French pople, peple, peuple, from Latin populus Date: 13th century 1. plural human beings making up a group or assembly or linked by a common interest 2. plural human beings, persons — often used in compounds instead of persons <salespeople> — often used attributively <people skills> 3. plural the members of a family or kinship 4. plural the mass of a community as distinguished from a special class <disputes between the people and the nobles> — often used by Communists to distinguish Communists from other people 5. plural peoples a body of persons that are united by a common culture, tradition, or sense of kinship, that typically have common language, institutions, and beliefs, and that often constitute a politically organized group 6. lower animals usually of a specified kind or situation 7. the body of enfranchised citizens of a state • peopleless adjective II. transitive verb (peopled; peopling) Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French popler, poeplier, from pople Date: 15th century 1. to supply or fill with people 2. to dwell in ; inhabit

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 (usu. as pl.) a persons composing a community, tribe, race, nation, etc. (the English people; a warlike people; the peoples of the Commonwealth). b a group of persons of a usu. specified kind (the chosen people; these people here; right-thinking people). 2 (prec. by the; treated as pl.) a the mass of people in a country etc. not having special rank or position. b these considered as an electorate (the people will reject it). 3 parents or other relatives (my people are French). 4 a subjects, armed followers, a retinue, etc. b a congregation of a parish priest etc. 5 persons in general (people do not like rudeness). --v.tr. (usu. foll. by with) 1 fill with people, animals, etc.; populate. 2 (esp. as peopled adj.) inhabit; occupy; fill (thickly peopled). Phrases and idioms: people's democracy a political system, esp. in E. Europe, with power regarded as invested in the people. Etymology: ME f. AF poeple, people, OF pople, peuple, f. L populus

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

People Peo"ple, n. [OE. peple, people, OF. pueple, F. peuple, fr. L. populus. Cf. Populage, Public, Pueblo.] 1. The body of persons who compose a community, tribe, nation, or race; an aggregate of individuals forming a whole; a community; a nation. Unto him shall the gathering of the people be. --Gen. xlix. 10. The ants are a people not strong. --Prov. xxx. 25. Before many peoples, and nations, and tongues. --Rev. x. 11. Earth's monarchs are her peoples. --Whitter. A government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people. --T. Parker. Note: Peopleis a collective noun, generally construed with a plural verb, and only occasionally used in the plural form (peoples), in the sense of nations or races. 2. Persons, generally; an indefinite number of men and women; folks; population, or part of population; as, country people; -- sometimes used as an indefinite subject or verb, like on in French, and man in German; as, people in adversity. People were tempted to lend by great premiums. --Swift. People have lived twenty-four days upon nothing but water. --Arbuthnot. 3. The mass of comunity as distinguished from a special class; the commonalty; the populace; the vulgar; the common crowd; as, nobles and people. And strive to gain his pardon from the people. --Addison. 4. With a possessive pronoun: (a) One's ancestors or family; kindred; relations; as, my people were English. (b) One's subjects; fellow citizens; companions; followers. ``You slew great number of his people.'' --Shak. Syn: People, Nation. Usage: When speaking of a state, we use people for the mass of the community, as distinguished from their rulers, and nation for the entire political body, including the rulers. In another sense of the term, nation describes those who are descended from the same stock; and in this sense the Germans regard themselves as one nation, though politically subject to different forms of government.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

People Peo"ple, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Peopled p. pr. & vb. n. Peopling.] [Cf. OF. popler, puepler, F. puepler. Cf. Populate.] To stock with people or inhabitants; to fill as with people; to populate. ``Peopled heaven with angels.'' --Dryden. As the gay motes that people the sunbeams. --Milton.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(peoples, peopling, peopled) Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. People are men, women, and children. People is normally used as the plural of person, instead of 'persons'. Millions of people have lost their homes. ...the people of Angola. ...homeless young people... I don't think people should make promises they don't mean to keep... N-PLURAL 2. The people is sometimes used to refer to ordinary men and women, in contrast to the government or the upper classes. ...the will of the people. N-PLURAL: the N 3. A people is all the men, women, and children of a particular country or race. ...the native peoples of Central and South America... N-COUNT-COLL 4. If a place or country is peopled by a particular group of people, that group of people live there. It was peopled by a fiercely independent race of peace-loving Buddhists. ...a small town peopled by lay workers and families. = populate VERB: usu passive, be V-ed by/with n, V-ed

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

pe'-p'-l: In English Versions of the Bible represents something over a dozen Hebrew and Greek words. Of these, in the Old Testament, `am, is overwhelmingly the most common (about 2,000 times), with le'om, and goy, next in order; but the various Hebrew words are used with very little or no difference in force (e.g. Pr 14:28; but, on the other hand, in Ps 44 contrast verses 12 and 14). Of the changes introduced by the Revised Version (British and American) the only one of significance (cited explicitly in the Preface to the English Revised Version) is the frequent use of the plural "peoples" (strangely avoided in the King James Version except Re 10:11; 17:15), where other nations than Israel are in question. So, for instance, in Ps 67:4; Isa 55:4; 60:2, with the contrast marked in Ps 33:10 and 12; Ps 77:14 and 15, etc. In the New Testament, laos, is the most common word, with ochlos, used almost as often in the King James Version. But in the Revised Version (British and American) the latter word is almost always rendered "multitude," "people" being retained only in Lu 7:12; Ac 11:24,26; 19:26, and in the fixed phrase "the common people" (ho polus ochlos) in Mr 12:37; Joh 12:9,12 margin (the retention of "people" would have been better in Joh 11:42, also), with "crowd" (Mt 9:23,25; Ac 21:35). The only special use of "people" that calls for attention is the phrase "people of the land." This may mean simply "inhabitants," as Eze 12:19; 33:2; 39:13; but in 2Ki 11:14, etc., and the parallel in 2 Chronicles, it means the people as contrasted with the king, while in Jer 1:18, etc., and in Eze 7:27; 22:29; 46:3,9, it means the common people as distinguished from the priests and the aristocracy. A different usage is that for the heathen (Ge 23:7,12,13; Nu 14:9) or half-heathen (Ezr 9:1,2; 10:2,11; Ne 10:28-31) inhabitants of Palestine. From this last use, the phrase came to be applied by some rabbis to even pure-blooded Jews, if they neglected the observance of the rabbinic traditions (compare Joh 7:49 the King James Version). For "people of the East" see CHILDREN OF THE EAST.

Burton Scott Easton

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Tribe, nation, race, clan, family. 2. Population, folks, persons, the public, the community, the bulk of mankind. 3. Commonalty, populace. 4. Rabble, mob, the vulgar, vulgar herd, lower classes, humbler classes, the multitude, the million, the many the crowd, the masses, canaille. 5. Persons, men, folks (collog.). II. v. a. Populate.

Moby Thesaurus

Everyman, John Doe, Public, Richard Roe, agnate, ancestors, ancestry, anchor, animal kingdom, assembly, billet at, bivouac, blood, blood relation, blood relative, bodies, body politic, bourgeoisie, breed, brethren, brood, burrow, camp, children, churchgoers, citizenry, clan, clansman, class, cognate, collateral, collateral relative, colonize, come to anchor, common man, common people, commonage, commonality, commonalty, commoners, commonwealth, community, community at large, congregation, connections, consanguinean, constituency, consumers, cultural community, deme, demos, denizen, distaff side, distant relation, domesticate, drop anchor, dwellers, empeople, enate, ensconce, establish residence, estate, everybody, everyman, everyone, everywoman, family, flesh, flesh and blood, flock, fold, folk, folks, forebears, general public, gens, gentry, german, get, grass roots, habitancy, hearth, hive, hoi polloi, homefolks, house, household, inhabit, inhabitants, issue, keep house, kin, kind, kindred, kinfolk, kinnery, kinsfolk, kinsman, kinsmen, kinswoman, kith and kin, laity, laymen, line, lineage, linguistic community, live at, locate, masses, matriclan, men, menage, minyan, mobile vulgus, moor, mortals, move, multitude, nation, nationality, near relation, nest, next of kin, nonclerics, nonordained persons, occupy, offspring, order, parish, parishioners, park, patriclan, people at large, people in general, perch, persons, phratry, phyle, plant, plant kingdom, plebeians, plebes, polity, populace, populate, population, posterity, proletariat, public, race, ragtag and bobtail, rank and file, relations, relatives, relocate, reside, roost, seculars, sept, set up housekeeping, set up shop, settle, settle down, settle in, sheep, sib, sibling, silent majority, sit down, society, spear kin, spear side, species, speech community, spindle kin, spindle side, squat, stand, state, stay at, stem, stirps, stock, strain, strike root, subjects, sword side, take residence at, take root, take up residence, tenant, the citizenry, the crowd, the general public, the people, the populace, the population, the public, third estate, totem, tribe, tribesman, uterine kin, whole people, world, you and me