persons
plural of “person” — a human being
An inflected form of person · plural.
How often you will meet it
Rank 1,006 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 18,185 times across 173,643 chapters — 0.009% of every word in the library.
What it means
noun
- a human being also: individual, someone, somebody, mortal, soul there was too much for one person to do
- a human body (usually including the clothing) a weapon was hidden on his person
- a grammatical category used in the classification of pronouns, possessive determiners, and verb forms according to whether they indicate the speaker, the addressee, or a third party stop talking about yourself in the third person
persons in real books
Each sentence below was written by a published author and is taken from a different book in our library. Open one to read the passage it came from, with narration.
-
Andrew, after being attached to the cross, preached during two days to twenty thousand persons.
The Dream · Émile Zola · Chapter 1
-
When the train arrived at Mallowe station, he was one of the first persons who got out.
Emily Fox-Seton · Frances Hodgson Burnett · Chapter 1
-
I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.
The Picture of Dorian Gray · Oscar Wilde · Chapter 1
-
Persons who inhabit residences composed of a brittle, transparent, silicious material, should refrain from forcibly casting fragments of granite, etc.
Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 08, May 21, 1870 · Various · Chapter 1
-
Lord H-RT-NGT-N is said to have referred all persons who questioned him about his acceptance of the Premiership, to Lord S-L-SB-RY.
Punch — Volume 99, August 16, 1890 · Various · Chapter 1