PERSON


Meaning of PERSON in English

■ noun ( plural people or ~s )

1》 a human being regarded as an individual.

↘an individual characterized by a preference or liking for a specified thing: she's not a cat ~.

↘a character in a play or story.

↘an individual's body: concealed on his ~.

2》 Grammar a category used in the classification of pronouns, possessive determiners, and verb forms, according to whether they indicate the speaker ( first ~ ), the addressee ( second ~ ), or a third party ( third ~ ).

3》 Christian Theology each of the three modes of being of God, namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Phrases

in ~ with the ~al presence or action of the individual specified.

Origin

ME: from OFr. ~e , from L. ~a 'actor's mask, character in a play', later 'human being'.

Usage

The words people and ~s are not used in exactly the same way. People is by far the commoner and is used in most ordinary contexts: a group of people ; several thousand people have been rehoused . Persons , on the other hand, tends now to be restricted to official or formal contexts, as in this vehicle is authorized to carry twenty ~s .

Concise Oxford English vocab.      Сжатый оксфордский словарь английского языка.