individual
/ɪndɪˈvɪd͡ʒʊəl//ˌɪndɪˈvɪd͡ʒ(u)əl/
individual noun: a person considered alone, rather than as belonging to a group of people.
Noun
individual (plural individuals)
- A person considered alone, rather than as belonging to a group of people.
- He is an unusual individual.
- “You have to be an individual,” said Ms. Smoke, a 40-year-old saleswoman, as she sipped her beverage. “You can’t just get black coffee.”2024 September 16, Priya Krishna, “The Customized Drink Is Out of Control”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Sep 2024
- A single physical human being as a legal subject, as opposed to a legal person such as a corporation.
- Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination […].1982, Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
- An object, be it a thing or an agent, as contrasted to a class.
- It is typically held that chairs, trees, rocks, people and many of the so-called ‘everyday’ objects we encounter can be regarded as individuals.2006, Steven French, “Identity and Individuality in Quantum Theory”, in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual.2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3
- An element belonging to a population.
Adjective
individual (comparative more individual, superlative most individual)
- Relating to a single person or thing as opposed to more than one.
- Near-synonyms: individuated, solitary, self-standing, freestanding
- As we can't print them all together, the individual pages will have to be printed one by one.
- Synonyms:
- single, individuated, solitary, self-standing, freestanding
- Antonyms:
- collective
- Intended for a single person as opposed to more than one person.
- individual personal pension
- individual cream cakes
- Antonyms:
- group, joint, shared, collective
- Not divisible without losing its identity.
- Near-synonyms: unatomizable, indivisible, undividable
- Synonyms:
- unatomizable, indivisible, undividable
individual meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
individual in Hindi
- person considered alone
- व्यक्ति vyakti, फ़र्द fard, शख़्स śaxs
individual in Tamil
- தனி நபர், தனியாள், தனியன், தனியர், தனிப்பட்ட, தனித்துவமான
individual in Urdu
- person considered alone
- فَرْد fard, شَخْص śaxs
individual in Bengali
- person considered alone
- ব্যক্তি bêkti, শখ্স śokhs
More languagesFewer languages
- individual in Telugu
- వ్యక్తి vyakti
- individual in Malayalam
- വ്യക്തി
- individual in Kannada
- ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ, ಆಸಾಮಿ, ಮನುಷ್ಯ, ಒಬ್ಬ
- individual in Punjabi
- ਸ਼ਖ਼ਸ śaxas
- individual in Gujarati
- વ્યક્તિ vyakti, શખ્સ śakhs
- individual in Odia
- ବ୍ୟକ୍ତି byakti, ପୁରୁଷ puruṣa
- individual in Sanskrit
- व्यक्ति vyakti
- individual in Pashto
- فرد fard, شخص šaxs
- individual in Arabic
- فَرْد fard, شَخْص šaḵṣ
- individual in Malay
- individu
- individual in Thai
- บุคคล bùk-kon, เฉพาะตัว
- individual in Vietnamese
- cá nhân, cá thể
- individual in Myanmar
- ပုဂ္ဂိုလ် pugguil
Examples of individual in a sentence
- In a materialistic society, individuals are taught to consume, consume, consume.
- The idea of beauty is not positive, but depends on the different tastes of individuals.
- The tribe consists of about two hundred lodges, that is, of about a thousand individuals.
Synonyms of individual
- single
- individuated
- solitary
- self-standing
- freestanding
- personal
- unatomizable
- indivisible
- undividable
Antonyms
Forms of individual
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | individuals |
| alternative form (obsolete) | individuall |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more individual |
| superlative | most individual |
Origin of individual
PIE word *dwóh₁ From Medieval Latin indīviduālis, from Latin indīviduum (“an indivisible thing”), neuter of indīviduus (“indivisible, undivided”), from in + dīviduus (“divisible”), from dīvidō (“divide”). Displaced native Old English hād (“person, individual”).
Words formed from individual
- bioindividual
- extraindividual
- individualise
- individualism
- individualistic
- individual item picking
- individuality
- individualization
- individualize
- individually
- individual medley
- individualness
- individual psychology
- individual pursuit
- individual sport
- individual time trial
- individual voluntary arrangement
- induhvidual
- interindividual
- intraindividual
- nonindividual
- subindividual
- superindividual
- supraindividual
- transindividual
- unindividual
Phrases with individual
Questions about individual
- What does individual mean?
- Individual means a person considered alone, rather than as belonging to a group of people.
- What is individual in Hindi?
- Individual in Hindi is व्यक्ति (vyakti), फ़र्द (fard), शख़्स (śaxs). See Individual meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is individual?
- Individual can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce individual?
- Individual is pronounced /ɪndɪˈvɪd͡ʒʊəl/.
- What is the plural of individual?
- The plural of individual is individuals.
Words near individual in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: individual (page history and authors); individual (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); individual (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); individual (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਸ਼ਖ਼ਸ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); વ્યક્તિ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ପୁରୁଷ (Odia) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-individual.ogg.
Cite this entry: “individual.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/individual. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.