persons

1. 1
   nounformal

   Plural of person.

   The rule applies equally to all persons named in the contract.

   Several persons were questioned by detectives after the incident.

   Note

   The plural that keeps individuals separate, where people treats them as a crowd. It now belongs chiefly to law and formal writing. Contracts, statutes and statistics count persons: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2007) classifies persons as unemployed if they lack a job. In ordinary conversation people is the natural plural. Persons signals that each individual is being counted, named or held responsible.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of person.

   Note

   A gender-neutral stand-in for the verb man: someone persons a desk, a booth or a reception counter by supplying the staff it needs. It is transitive, so the post being filled is always the object. The spelling coincides with the formal plural noun, and the construction tells them apart. An older use, now obsolete, meant to personify or impersonate.

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