Meaning of person in English

person
noun [ C ]
us

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/ˈpɝː.sən/ uk

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/ˈpɜː.sən/
plural people us/ˈpiː.pəl/ uk/ˈpiː.pəl/formal persons

person noun [C] (HUMAN)

A1
a man, woman, or child:
Who was the first person to swim the English Channel?
A meal at the restaurant costs about $70 for two people.
formal Four persons have been charged with the murder.
used when describing someone's character:
She's an extremely kind person.
He's nice enough as a person, but he's not the right man for this job.
informal I don't think of him as a book person (= a person who likes books).
 in person
B2
If you do something or go somewhere in person, you do it or go there yourself:
If you can't be there in person, the next best thing is watching it on TV.
More examples
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
People in general
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person noun [C] (GRAMMAR)

language   specialized
used in grammar to describe the verbs and pronouns that refer to the different people in a conversation. The first person ("I" or "we") refers to the person speaking, the second person ("you") refers to the person being spoken to and the third person ("he," "she," "it," or "they") refers to another person or thing being spoken about or described:
The novel is written in the first person, so that the author and narrator seem to be the same.
"Am" is the first person singular of the verb "to be."
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Linguistics: grammatical terms
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Grammar

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

Idioms

in the person of someone
on/about your person
-person
suffix
us

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/ -pɝː.sən/ uk

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/ -pɜː.sən/
used to combine with nouns to form new nouns referring to the particular job or duty that someone has. It is often used instead of -man or -woman to avoid making an unnecessary statement about the sex of the particular person:
spokesperson
chairperson
business people
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Men & women
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(Definition of person from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

person | Intermediate English

person
noun [ C ]
us

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/ˈpɜr·sən/
plural people us/ˈpi·pəl/ persons
a man, woman, or child:
Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon.
The auditorium can seat about 500 people.
The plane crashed just after takeoff, killing all 29 persons aboard.
Person is also used when describing someone’s character or personality:
I don’t think of him as a book person (= someone who likes books).
She’s nice enough as a person, but she’s not right for the job.
Note:
  • In formal writing, the plural "persons" is sometimes preferred over "people," but "persons" is also used in news reports – At least 30 persons are dead or missing – and in the phrase "person or persons" when the number of people is not known – We expect to catch the person or persons responsible.

Idiom

in person
(Definition of person from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

person | Business English

person
noun [ C ]
uk

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/ˈpɜːsən/ us

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persons
LAW
→  legal person

See also

natural person
people person
(Definition of person from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of person

person
And then we go around the table and each person can talk about what they are going through.
From Los Angeles Times
The partner is the person who usually brings the other person in for treatment for snoring.
From Huffington Post
He then hung up without taking questions, this person said.
From Business Insider
You're above that and should want nothing to do with this person.
From Huffington Post
And just have a lot of respect for her as a person.
From Washington Post
He made me want to be a better person.
From CNN
She's a pretty accomplished person in the tech world.
From VentureBeat
It may have been the person down the street.
From MLive.com
I am the only person who has written about this, not the only one who has experienced it.
From Foreign Policy
He or she is different and unique, just as is every other person.
From Huffington Post
What seems like a waste to one person may be truly valued by another.
From CNN
We think this person was on the run on the trail and was trying to steal our car.
From OregonLive.com
How can you find one person in a whole city?
From TIME
It was very difficult for the average person to use it.
From CNN
No person knows what tomorrow or next month will bring.
From Huffington Post
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.

Collocations with person

person

These are words often used in combination with person.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

able-bodied person
Second, every able-bodied person learns to perceive and control locomotion across a variety of surfaces (as do the young of many other species).
From the Cambridge English Corpus  
accused person
Consider, for instance, the right of an accused person lacking proficiency in the state language to a court-appointed interpreter.
From the Cambridge English Corpus  
affected person
Doing so violates this principle even if the imposition delivers an overall benefit to the affected person.
From the Cambridge English Corpus  
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.
See all collocations with person

Translations of person

in Chinese (Traditional)
人, （用於描述人的某一品質）…的人, 文法…
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in Chinese (Simplified)
人, （用于描述人的某一品质）…的人, 语法…
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in Spanish
persona, persona [feminine, singular]…
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in Portuguese
pessoa, pessoa [feminine]…
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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 Ukrainian
in Italian
in Russian
人, 人間…
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kişi, birey, şahıs…
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personne [feminine], personne, soi…
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persona…
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شَخْص…
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osoba, (při) sobě…
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person, på sig, med sig…
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orang, diri…
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มนุษย์, ที่ตัว…
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người, theo người…
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osoba…
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orang, bersamanya…
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die Person, der Körper…
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person [masculine], menneske [neuter], menneske…
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사람, 인간…
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людина, особа, тіло…
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persona, sé…
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человек, личность…
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persistent vegetative state
persistently
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person
person of color
person of colour
person of interest
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