Meaning of people in English

people
noun [ plural ]
us

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/ˈpiː.pəl/ uk

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/ˈpiː.pəl/
A1
men, women, and children:
Many people never do any exercise.
We've invited 30 people to our party.
used to refer to everyone, or informally to the group that you are speaking to:
People will think you've gone nuts.
People like to be made to feel important.
Now that we've discussed our problems, are people happy with the decisions we've made?
men and women who are involved in a particular type of work:
We'll have to get the people at the city council to look at these plans.
Most of her friends are media people.
 the people
C1
the large number of ordinary men and women who do not have positions of power in society:
She claims to be the voice of the people.
The president has lost the support of the people.
the people's Princess
 sb's people informal
the people someone is related to:
Her people come from Scotland originally.
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SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
People in general
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Grammar

Man, mankind or people?
…
Person, persons or people?
We use person in the singular to refer to any human being: …

Idioms

man/woman of the people
of all people
people
noun [ C ]
us

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/ˈpiː.pəl/ uk

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/ˈpiː.pəl/
all the men, women, and children who live in a particular country, or who have the same culture or language:
The French are known as a food-loving people.
a society:
Customs similar to this one are found among many peoples of the world.
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Countries, nationalities & continents: country & nation
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Grammar

Man, mankind or people?
…
Person, persons or people?
We use person in the singular to refer to any human being: …
(Definition of people from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

people | Intermediate English

people
plural noun
us

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/ˈpi·pəl/

people plural noun (PERSONS)

men, women, and children generally; pl ofperson:
There were a lot of people there.
Some people were hurt.
People can refer to a particular group mentioned:
young/old people
poor/rich people
Those people look as if they’re lost.
When you say the people, you mean the large number of ordinary men and women who do not have positions of power:
The president wanted to take his message directly to the people.
Note:
  • See the usage note at person.
people
noun [ C ]
us

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/ˈpi·pəl/

people noun [C] (NATION)

a culture or nation:
It is a custom shared by many Native American peoples.
people
verb [ T ]
us

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/ˈpi·pəl/

people verb [T] (PERSONS)

If a place is peopled by a particular type of people, they have moved there or live there:
Honolulu is peopled by native Hawaiians, Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos, white Americans, and others.
(Definition of people from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

people | Business English

people
noun [ plural ]
uk

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/ˈpiːpl/ us

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HR
the people who work for a particular organization or person:
Firms need to keep investing both in infrastructure and their people.
Your people can talk to my people about percentages.
(Definition of people from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of people

people
When it comes down to the people who read the spoilers, it's a really small percentage.
From USA TODAY
People should be prepared that both pieces are really shattering.
From cleveland.com
More examples Fewer examples
People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked.
From Chicago Daily Herald
But most people are coming in for home protection.
From NJ.com
That's what people are going to see, is the rebound and the 3.
From ESPN
He didn't say one of two people still running.
From cleveland.com
He's one of the people who can do things.
From Los Angeles Times
But these people are in it for profit.
From WIRED
When people see themselves as self-made, they tend to be less generous and public-spirited.
From The Atlantic
Potential is one of those curses many people carry with them in life, and so it was for me.
From Huffington Post
You have a force of 30,000 or so people.
From Washington Post
But would the same thing work in people?
From The Atlantic
A prolonged period of uncertainty would force people to act, he said.
From Bloomberg
Twenty-two other people were wounded during that stretch.
From Chicago Tribune
I'm still not sure those are real people that post stuff like that.
From CNN
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Translations of people

in Chinese (Traditional)
人, 人們, 大家…
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in Chinese (Simplified)
人, 人们, 大家…
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in Spanish
personas, gente, personas [feminine…
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in Portuguese
pessoas, gente, povo…
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in more languages
in Japanese
in Turkish
in French
in Catalan
in Arabic
in Czech
in Danish
in Indonesian
in Thai
in Vietnamese
in Polish
in Malay
in German
in Norwegian
in Korean
in Italian
in Russian
人々, 国民, 民族…
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insanlar, halk, kişiler…
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personnes [feminine, plural], gens [masculine…
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persones, poble, gent…
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ناس, أُناس, شَعْب…
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osoby, lidé, lidstvo…
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personer, folk…
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orang, bangsa…
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บุคคล, คน, ประชากร…
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người, người dân, dân tộc…
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ludzie, naród, lud…
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orang, bangsa…
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die Leute (pl.), das Volk…
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folk [neuter, plural], personer [neuter…
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사람들, 국민…
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persone, gente, popolo…
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люди, народ, национальность…
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