Person Definition Explained: Pronunciation, Examples, and Exercises

What context is appropriate for this word? You can talk about people you don’t know, ask for information about particular individuals, highlight your relationships with a person, keep their name a secret, or describe your personality traits.

There are various options of words you can choose instead of “person,” based on who you are talking about. Is it a person from a fiction book? Refer to them as a character. Is gender essential? You can say “man” or “woman.”

Related nouns: figure character

Synonyms (contextual): individual human man woman

Common collocations: a public person an elderly person to know a person

With adjectives, you can specify the qualities someone possesses, such as smart, active, and ambitious. Nouns can help you mention an individual’s qualifications and areas of interest.

With adjectives: a shy person an average person a specific person

With verbs: to meet a person to help a person to trust a person to hire a person

With nouns (noun + noun): a person in charge a business person a support person

Apt sayings allow us to define “person” broadly, as they add new senses. Go over some common phrases you can hear from native speakers:

• To be in another person’s (someone’s) shoes — refers to trying to understand what another person feels.

  She is very attentive. It is very easy for her to be in another person’s shoes and truly feel when it is important to be caring.

• A night person — a type of person who is active at a late time and prefers sleeping longer in the morning.

    Even though I am a night person, I need to wake up early everyday. — Women’s Health

• The last person — used to describe someone who is the last in the line of possible options.

    My brother is the last person I would consider cheating during exams.

From the definition and examples with collocations, you may have learned what a person means in English. Let’s now check what you remember about this word and the phrases it is used in.

If you pursue a multilingual approach, you may be interested in how you spell “person” in other popular European languages:

The rich history of the word has packed it with multiple meanings and characteristics that go beyond its identification as a figure. These fascinating stories will help you break the ice in any conversation with those who are interested in languages:

• The word “person” has more than one plural form.

  It is common that “people” is the word that is used to indicate the plural form of “person,” but you have more options. “Persons” exists in writing as well, but you won’t encounter it as often, because its meaning is more formal and can be met in the legal and other professional environments.

• The origin of “person” meant a mask.

  The word came in English from Latin and slightly changed its form and meaning. “Persona” was common in theatres and was closely associated with masks and characters rather than individuals, but it evolved into what we have today.

• In ancient and medieval times, not only could a human be a person.

  In Greece, philosophers discussed whether gods could be considered persons. Later, in the Middle Ages, legal agreements referred to objects such as buildings, ships and other entities as persons.

• Talking about “person” in grammar is not about people.

  The first or third person isn’t related to the order of people, but rather to the point of view. Mentioning the first person means that I or We do something. The second person is about the cases where a narrator speaks directly to the reader. The third person is when you don’t belong to the story and tell about other people.

There are many positive and heart-warming quotations that have been said with the word “person,” as it means everything to someone. Let’s read these lines that praise different kinds of love.

— Stephanie Perkins

Explanation: Writing her book Anna and the French Kiss, Stephanie Perkins assumes that we feel safety and calmness not only when we are surrounded by walls but when a dear person is with us.

— Jim Valvano

Explanation: The author of this phrase established a good career in basketball, both as a coach and player. As he noticed, he was blessed with his father’s faith in him, and this is the most precious present in his life.

— Wayne Dyer

Explanation: Having experience in creating motivational books, Wayne Dyer has a knack for noticing simple yet profound ideas, such as the fact that when you have love for yourself, you won’t feel lonely, because you can provide enough entertainment for yourself.