people
/ˈpi.pəl/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 6.25 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
plural of person: a body of persons considered generally or collectively; a group of two or more persons.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Persons forming or belonging to a particular group, such as a nation, class, ethnic group, country, family, etc.
Countable
noun
A group of persons regarded as being servants, followers, companions or subjects of a ruler or leader.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The mass of a community as distinguished from a special class (elite); the commonalty; the populace; the vulgar; the common crowd; the citizens.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
People in general, humans, by extension sentient beings real or fictional.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "There were so many people at the restaurant last night."
- "These six people are waiting for the bus."
- "Under dictatorship, people suffered and died."
- "XXII people was in this parrish drownd."
- ""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.""
- "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."
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: puple, people, pueple, populus, *poplos, peplen,peuplien
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpi.pəl/
- British English: /ˈpiː.pəl/
Usage
Inflected Forms
peoples (plural)
peeps (alternative, slang)
peops (alternative, slang)
peple (alternative, obsolete)
pipple (alternative, pronunciation spelling)
ppl (alternative, Internet)
ppl. (alternative, Internet)
peoples (present, singular)
peopling (participle, present)
peopled (participle, past)
peopled (past)