Word.ws English Dictionary

people

Syllables: peo·ple/ˈpiː.pəl//ˈpi.pəl/

people noun: persons forming or belonging to a particular group, such as a nation, class, ethnic group, country, family, etc. Also the plural of person: a body of person.

Noun

people (countable and uncountable, plural peoples)

  1. (collective, countable) Persons forming or belonging to a particular group, such as a nation, class, ethnic group, country, family, etc.
    • a people apart
    • an industrious people
  2. A group of persons regarded as being servants, followers, companions or subjects of a ruler or leader.
    • Moses said, "Let my people go."
    • his people were weary
  3. One's colleagues or employees.
    • I'll have my people call your people.
    • I have my people working on it.
  4. A person's ancestors, relatives or family.
    • My people lived through the Black Plague and the Thirty Years War.
    • His people live out west.
    Synonyms:
    kin, kith, folks
  5. The mass of a community as distinguished from a special class (elite); the commonalty; the populace; the vulgar; the common crowd; the citizens.
    • The people have successfully stood up against tyranny and totalitarianism.
    • The election is over and the people have spoken.
  6. People in general, humans, by extension sentient beings real or fictional.
    • People don't like it when you tweak their noses.
    • Teachers are people too.

Verb (1)

people (third-person singular simple present peoples, present participle peopling, simple past and past participle peopled)

  1. (informal, rare) To interact with people; to socialize.
    • I don't people well.” “Not peopling well is a crap excuse,” I retorted, and started to step around him, but a sudden thought occurred to me.2018, Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Darkest Star, Tor Teen, →ISBN, page 149
    • My head tilted as Calvin said, "Don't worry about him. He just doesn't people well.
    • The fuck? I people. Sometimes. With people I know.2019, Casey Diam, Love

Verb (2)

people (third-person singular simple present peoples, present participle peopling, simple past and past participle peopled)

  1. (transitive) To stock with people or inhabitants; to fill as with people; to populate.
    • He would not be alone, who all things can; / But peopled Heav'n with Angels, Earth with Man.1674, John Dryden, The State of Innocence and the Fall of Man, act II, scene I
    • Scenes, long since forgotten, had been peopling his solitude with one still cherished image paramount over all; one young fair face, whose sweet eyes seemed to look upon him reproachfully:...1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXI, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 159
  2. (intransitive) To become populous or populated.
  3. (transitive) To inhabit; to occupy; to populate.
    • […] / As thick and numberless / As the gay motes that people the Sun Beams, / […]a. 1645, John Milton, Il Penseroso, lines 7–8

Also used as

people is also the plural of person: a body of person.

people meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

people in Hindi

a body of human beings; a group of two or more persons
लोग log, जनता jantā
a group of persons forming or belonging to a particular nation etc.
समाज samāj, लोग log, अवाम avām, क़ौम qaum

people in Tamil

a body of human beings; a group of two or more persons
பேர் pēr
a group of persons forming or belonging to a particular nation etc.
மக்கள் makkaḷ
a group of persons regarded as being employees etc.
ஆட்கள் āṭkaḷ
a person's ancestors, relatives or family
உறவினர் uṟaviṉar

people in Marathi

लोक, लोकांना

people in Urdu

a body of human beings; a group of two or more persons
لوگ log
a group of persons forming or belonging to a particular nation etc.
عَوام 'avām, لوگ log, سَماج samāj, قَوم qaum
More languagesFewer languages
people in Bengali
জনগণ jongon
people in Telugu
ప్రజలు prajalu, జనం janaṁ
people in Malayalam
ജനങ്ങൾ, ആളുകൾ
people in Kannada
ಜನರು janaru
people in Punjabi
ਲੋਕ lok
people in Gujarati
લોકો, લોકોને
people in Odia
ଲୋକମାନେ, ଲୋକ ମାନେ
people in Sanskrit
जन jana
people in Assamese
মানুহ manuh, লোক lük, ৰাইজ raiz
people in Nepali
मानिसहरू, व्यक्तिहरू
people in Pashto
خلک xálək, خلګ xaləg
people in Tagalog
bayan
people in Arabic
نَاس nās, خَلْق ḵalq, ناس nās, شَعْب šaʕb
people in Malay
orang, orang-orang, rakyat
people in Indonesian
rakyat, masyarakat, orang, orang-orang
people in Persian
مَرْدُم mardum, خَلْق xalq, قَوْم qawm, قُوْم ġowm
people in Thai
คน kon, ผู้ pûu, บุคคล bùk-kon, ประชาชน bprà-chaa-chon
people in Vietnamese
người, nhân dân, dân tộc, dân
people in Myanmar
ပြည်သူပြည်သား pranysu-pranysa:
Kashmiri
لوٗکھ lūkh, لُکھ lukh

Examples of people in a sentence

  • the indigenous peoples of Europe
  • the native peoples of Borneo
  • The people won't tolerate so much corruption any more!
  • This people was an old people before the Egyptians were.'1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
  • Other nationalisms aimed at liberating subjugated peoples who spoke the same language and lived in the same territory.2002 November 21, Amos Elon, “Israelis & Palestinians: What Went Wrong?”, in The New York Review, archived from the original on 09 May 2021:
  • The team auctioned off the right to name the new species to publicize the find and raise awareness and funds for the indigenous Lahu people of northern Thailand, a group that Sippawat is part of.2023 September 26, Hafsa Khalil, “Electric blue tarantula species discovered in Thailand”, in CNN, archived from the original on 20 Nov...

All 40 example sentences with people

Synonyms of people

6 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of people

Forms of people

Noun
pluralpeoples
alternative pronunciation-spellingpipple
alternative Internetppl
alternative Internetppl.
alternative form (slang)peeps
alternative form (slang)peops
alternative form (obsolete)peple
Verb
third-person singular presentpeoples
present participlepeopling
past participlepeopled
pastpeopled

Plural of people: peoples

Origin of people

From Middle English puple, peple, peeple, from Anglo-Norman people, from Old French pueple, peuple, pople, from Latin populus (“a people, nation”), from Old Latin populus, from earlier poplus, from even earlier poplos, from Proto-Italic *poplos (“army”) of unknown origin. Doublet of pueblo. Gradually ousted native English lede and, partially, folk. Originally used with singular verbs (e.g. "the people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness" in the King James Version of 2 Samuel 17:29), the plural aspect of people is probably due to influence from Middle English lede, leed, a plural since Old English times; see lēode.

From Middle English peplen, peuplien, partly from Middle French peupler (from peuple (“people”)) and partly from the noun (etymology 1).

Words formed from people

Phrases with people

79 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with people

Questions about people

What does people mean?
People means persons forming or belonging to a particular group, such as a nation, class, ethnic group, country, family, etc.
What is people in Hindi?
People in Hindi is लोग (log), जनता (jantā), समाज (samāj). See People meaning in Hindi.
How do you use people in a sentence?
the indigenous peoples of Europe
What part of speech is people?
People can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce people?
People is pronounced /ˈpi.pəl/ (US).
What is the plural of people?
The plural of people is peoples.

Words near people in the dictionary

  1. peonizing
  2. peons
  3. peony
  4. peonylike
  5. peop.
  6. people
  7. people carrier
  8. people carriers
  9. people deprived of liberty
  10. people from Porlock
  11. people group

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: people (page history and authors); people (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); people (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); people (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); people (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); people (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-people.ogg, En-uk-people.ogg.

Cite this entry: “people.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/people. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.