person

Less common meanings

4. 4
   grammarnoununcountable

   In grammar, a category distinguishing the speaker, the one addressed, and the one spoken about.

   Spanish verb endings shift with both person and number.

   The pronoun 'they' can mark third person singular or plural.

   UsageUsually first person, second person, third person. A story in the first person has a narrator speaking as I or we.

   Note

   The grammatical category that comes in three: first person is the speaker (I, we), second is the one addressed (you), and third covers everyone and everything else. Verbs often agree in person as well as number. English marks it mainly in its pronouns and in the -s of a verb such as walks. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • The three grammatical persons distinguish the speaker (I, we), the addressee (you), and others. en.wikipedia.org
   • Verbs can agree with their subjects in both person and number. khanacademy.org
   • English expresses person through pronouns and the third-person singular verb ending -s. fordham.edu
5. 5
   in lawnouncountable

   In law, any individual or formal organization that has standing before the courts.

   Under the statute, a corporation is a person able to enter contracts.

   The court ruled that the charity, as a legal person, could hold title to the land.

   Similarentity

   Note

   Lawyers use the word for whatever can hold rights and appear in court, and at common law that reaches well beyond human beings: a corporation is legally a person. The contrast with the everyday sense is the point. Legal personhood is conferred by the law, not earned by being human, so a statute's "any person" may include a company. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • A person in law can hold rights and participate in court proceedings. law.cornell.edu
   • A corporation is a legal person, but a traditional common-law trust is a legal relationship, not a separate legal person. Statutes may give particular trusts separate legal status. gov.uk
   • Legal personhood depends on legal recognition and can extend to non-human entities. law.cornell.edu
   • A statute's reference to a person may include a company. law.cornell.edu
6. 6
   bodynouncountable

   The physical body of a being, regarded as distinct from the mind, character, and personality.

   The officers discovered the documents concealed on his person.

   She carried no money on her person that evening.

   UsageMostly in on one's person: no ID on his person. It sounds formal and official.

   Similarbody

   Note

   The New York Times in 2004 describes a man "with no identification on his person." Older prose uses it for bodily presence and bearing, as with Henry James's Captain "inclining his military person." It is often set against the soul, as in Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Henry James describes the Captain as "inclining his military person" in What Maisie Knew. en.wiktionary.org
   • Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy contrasts a person's body with the soul. gutenberg.org
7. 7
   special someonenouncountable

   An exceptionally compatible person with whom someone shares a deep bond, especially a romantic partner.

   From the moment they met, he knew she was his person.

   After twenty years of marriage, she's still my person, the first one I call with news.

   UsageAlmost always with a possessive: my person, their person. Warm and casual, not for formal writing.

   Similarsoulmate, match

   Note

   It nearly always comes with a possessive, as in my person or her person, and points to one irreplaceable individual without any adjective doing the work. It reaches beyond romance, as when a woman in Emily Forbes's The Perfect Mother for His Son (2022) calls her dead twin "my person." Source

   Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • Emily Forbes wrote The Perfect Mother for His Son, published in 2022; a female character calls her dead twin 'my person', illustrating a bond beyond romance. en.wiktionary.org
8. 8
   nouncountable

   Any sapient or socially intelligent being, including non-human creatures capable of reason.

   Some philosophers argue that any sapient being should be regarded as a person.

   In the film, the android slowly comes to see herself as a person, not a machine.

9. 9
   Trinitynouncountable

   In Christian theology, each of the three hypostases of the Trinity, namely the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit.

   The creed affirms that the Son is a distinct person from the Father.

   Each person of the Trinity shares the same divine nature.

   Similarhypostasis

   Note

   A theological term with a precise boundary: each person of the Trinity is distinct, yet the three are a single God. The Litany of the Book of Common Prayer puts it in five words: "three persons and one God." Here the plural is persons. The word does not mean three separate beings, which is why it should not be read in the everyday sense. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

   • Trinitarian theology distinguishes the three persons while affirming one God. usccb.org
   • The Book of Common Prayer's Litany contains the quoted wording. justus.anglican.org
   • The quotation contains five words: three / persons / and / one / God. justus.anglican.org
   • The theological plural used here is persons. justus.anglican.org
   • The three divine persons are not three separate beings understood in the everyday human sense. en.wikipedia.org
10. 10
    stage partnounliterarycountable

    A character or role, as in a play, or an assumed character that one presents to others.

    The poem is spoken in the person of a dying soldier.

    She wrote the column in the person of a world-weary detective.

    UsageMostly in in the person of + a character: in the person of a dying soldier.

    Similarcharacter, role, persona, guise

    Note

    The sense closest to the word's origin: Latin persōna meant an actor's mask, and from that a role or part, perhaps borrowed from Etruscan φersu, "mask." Seventeenth-century writers pair it with verbs of wearing and carrying. Jeremy Taylor warns that "no man can long put on a person and act a part," and Robert South's man "sustains the person of a magistrate" in one setting and a friend in another. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • Latin persōna meant an actor's mask and, by extension, a role or part. en.wiktionary.org
    • Borrowing from Etruscan φersu, meaning mask, is a proposed etymology rather than a certainty. en.wiktionary.org
    • The cited Taylor and South examples belong to the seventeenth century and illustrate putting on or sustaining a role. en.wiktionary.org
    • Jeremy Taylor wrote the quoted warning. gutenberg.org
    • Robert South describes the same man sustaining the role of a magistrate and that of a friend. ccel.org
11. 11
    provide workersverbtransitivegender neutral

    To supply something with the staff or crew needed to operate it.

    Reservists were called up to person the border checkpoints.

    The charity struggled to person its rural clinics with trained staff.

    Similarstaff, man, crew

    Note

    A deliberately gender-neutral replacement for man as a verb: personning the raffle booth, personning the griddle. Its inflected forms are spelled two ways, personing or personning and personed or personned, and the doubled n appears in the 1996 and 2006 uses. Because it visibly swaps out a familiar verb, it can read as playful, as in Brian R. Brenner's Don't Throw This Away! (2007): "time to person the lifeboats." Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • The staffing verb person is a gender-neutral substitute for man. en.wiktionary.org
    • Both single-n and double-n inflections are recorded. en.wiktionary.org
    • The raffle-booth example is recorded in 1996 with a doubled n. en.wiktionary.org
    • The griddle example is recorded in 2006 with a doubled n. en.wiktionary.org
    • Brian R. Brenner wrote Don't Throw This Away!: The Civil Engineering Life. russorights.com
    • The quoted words appear in Brenner's book. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    private partsnouneuphemisticcountable

    In law, a euphemism for the human genitalia, specifically the penis.

    The defendant was accused of exposing his person to passersby.

    Witnesses testified that the man had indecently exposed his person near the market.

    Similargenitals, penis

    Note

    A legal euphemism with a precise home in statute. The Vagrancy Act 1824 punished anyone lewdly "exposing his Person" in a street or public place with intent to insult a woman, and the same clause opens with "every Person" in the ordinary sense. Only context separates the two meanings. Use it only in the frame expose one's person, because anywhere else readers will take the word in its ordinary meaning. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • The legal euphemism occurs in statute and refers specifically to the penis in this provision. lawreform.ie
    • The Vagrancy Act 1824 punished lewd exposure in the specified public locations with intent to insult a female, using the exact words 'exposing his Person'. legislation.gov.uk
    • The same exposure clause begins with 'every Person', referring to the individual committing the offence. legislation.gov.uk
13. 13
    verbobsoletetransitive

    To represent something as a person, or to take on and act out another's character.

    Note

    Long out of use, and now met only in older prose. Milton in 1644 writes "let us person him like some wretched itinerary Judge," that is, picture him in the role of a shabby traveling judge, much as an actor takes on a part in a play. A modern writer wanting this meaning should reach for personify or impersonate, which have taken over the same ground. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • The cited Milton passage is attested in the 1644 second edition of The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce. en.wiktionary.org
    • Milton wrote the quoted words. droitromain.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr
    • Here person means to represent someone as a character or personify them. en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    noun

    In biology, an individual unit (such as a plant bud, or a polyp or zooid in a colonial animal) within a larger organism.