PEOPLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does people mean? 

• PEOPLE (noun)
  The noun PEOPLE has 4 senses:

1. (plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively

2. the body of citizens of a state or country

3. members of a family line

4. the common people generally

  Familiarity information: PEOPLE used as a noun is uncommon.

• PEOPLE (verb)
  The verb PEOPLE has 2 senses:

1. fill with people

2. furnish with people

  Familiarity information: PEOPLE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PEOPLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

there were at least 200 people in the audience

Hypernyms ("people" is a kind of...):

group; grouping (any number of entities (members) considered as a unit)

Meronyms (members of "people"):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Domain usage:

plural; plural form (the form of a word that is used to denote more than one)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "people"):

rich; rich people (people who have possessions and wealth (considered as a group))

network army (a group of like-minded people united by the internet; a new kind of social or political of business group that may exert broad influence on a shared concern)

nationality (people having common origins or traditions and often comprising a nation)

peanut gallery ((figurative) people whose criticisms are regarded as irrelevant or insignificant (resembling uneducated people who throw peanuts on the stage to express displeasure with a performance))

pocket (a small isolated group of people)

retreated (people who have retreated)

sick (people who are sick)

tradespeople (people engaged in trade)

maimed; wounded (people who are wounded)

migration (a group of people migrating together (especially in some given time period))

class; social class; socio-economic class; stratum (people having the same social, economic, or educational status)

country; land; nation (the people who live in a nation or country)

poor; poor people (people without possessions or wealth (considered as a group))

peoples (the human beings of a particular nation or community or ethnic group)

populace; public; world (people in general considered as a whole)

population (the people who inhabit a territory or state)

coevals; contemporaries; generation (all the people living at the same time or of approximately the same age)

lobby (the people who support some common cause or business or principle or sectional interest)

business; clientele; patronage (customers collectively)

rank and file (people who constitute the main body of any group)

smart money (people who are highly experienced or who have inside information)

unconfessed (people who have not confessed)

unemployed; unemployed people (people who are involuntarily out of work (considered as a group))

womankind (women as distinguished from men)

chosen people (any people believing themselves to be chosen by God)

Slavic people (group of people speaking a Slavonic language)

uninitiate (people who have not been introduced to the mysteries of some field or activity)

age bracket; age group; cohort (a group of people having approximately the same age)

ancients (people who lived in times long past (especially during the historical period before the fall of the Roman Empire in western Europe))

baffled (people who are frustrated and perplexed)

blind (people who have severe visual impairments, considered as a group)

blood (people viewed as members of a group)

brave (people who are brave)

cautious; timid (people who are fearful and cautious)

business people; businesspeople (people who transact business (especially business executives))

community (a group of people having a religion, ethnic, profession, or other particular characteristic in common)

damned (people who are condemned to eternal punishment)

dead (people who are no longer living)

deaf (people who have severe hearing impairments)

developmentally challenged; mentally retarded; retarded (people collectively who are mentally retarded)

enlightened; initiate (people who have been introduced to the mysteries of some field or activity)

homebound (people who are confined to their homes)

free; free people (people who are free)

common people; folk; folks (people in general (often used in the plural))

enemy (any hostile group of people)

doomed; lost (people who are destined to die soon)

disabled; handicapped (people collectively who are crippled or otherwise physically handicapped)

defeated; discomfited (people who are defeated)

living (people who are still living)

episcopacy; episcopate (the collective body of bishops)

Holonyms ("people" is a member of...):

human beings; human race; humanity; humankind; humans; man; mankind; world (all of the living human inhabitants of the earth)

Derivation:

people (fill with people)

people (furnish with people)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The body of citizens of a state or country

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

citizenry; people

Context example:

the Spanish people

Hypernyms ("people" is a kind of...):

group; grouping (any number of entities (members) considered as a unit)

Meronyms (members of "people"):

citizen (a native or naturalized member of a state or other political community)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "people"):

Achaean; Arcado-Cyprians (the ancient Greek inhabitants of Achaea)

governed (the body of people who are citizens of a particular government)

electorate (the body of enfranchised citizens; those qualified to vote)

Ionian (the ancient Greek inhabitants of Attica and related regions in Ionia)

Dorian (the ancient Greek inhabitants of Doris who entered Greece from the north about 1100 BC)

Aeolian (the ancient Greek inhabitants of Aeolia)

country people; countryfolk (people living in the same country; compatriots)

Derivation:

people (fill with people)

people (furnish with people)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Members of a family line

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

are your people still alive?

Hypernyms ("people" is a kind of...):

family; family line; folk; kinfolk; kinsfolk; phratry; sept (people descended from a common ancestor)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The common people generally

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

hoi polloi; mass; masses; multitude; people; the great unwashed

Context example:

power to the people

Hypernyms ("people" is a kind of...):

group; grouping (any number of entities (members) considered as a unit)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "people"):

laity; temporalty (in Christianity, members of a religious community that do not have the priestly responsibilities of ordained clergy)

audience (the part of the general public interested in a source of information or entertainment)

followers; following (a group of followers or enthusiasts)

Derivation:

people (fill with people)

people (furnish with people)

• PEOPLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they people    ... he / she / it peoples   
Past simple: peopled   
Past participle: peopled   
-ing form: peopling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fill with people

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

Stalin wanted to people the empty steppes

Hypernyms (to "people" is one way to...):

populate (fill with inhabitants)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

people ((plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively)

people (the body of citizens of a state or country)

people (the common people generally)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Furnish with people

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Context example:

The plains are sparsely populated

Hypernyms (to "people" is one way to...):

dwell; inhabit; live; populate (be an inhabitant of or reside in)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

people ((plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively)

people (the body of citizens of a state or country)

people (the common people generally)

 Context examples 

They had drawn back from many introductions, and still were perpetually having cards left by people of whom they knew nothing.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Those are the only people that you would find within the grounds of Yoxley Old Place.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

People with metabolic syndrome X are at increased risk of diabetes mellitus and diseases of the heart and blood vessels.

(metabolic syndrome X, NCI Dictionary)

For many people, treatments to relieve stress can also help.

(Migraine, NIH: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)

The tragedy has been so uncommon, so complete and of such personal importance to so many people, that we are suffering from a plethora of surmise, conjecture, and hypothesis.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It is most common in older people and in people with weakened immune systems.

(Merkel cell cancer, NCI Dictionary)

‘It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you see?’

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When these people drew near the house where Dorothy was standing in the doorway, they paused and whispered among themselves, as if afraid to come farther.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

People who have allergies often are sensitive to more than one thing.

(Allergy, NIH: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)

"No; I should not like to belong to poor people," was my reply.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)