- people
- [[t]pi͟ːp(ə)l[/t]]
♦peoples, peopling, peopled1) N-PLURAL People are men, women, and children. People is normally used as the plural of person, instead of `persons'.
Millions of people have lost their homes.
...the people of Angola.
...homeless young people...
I don't think people should make promises they don't mean to keep...
It is illegal and could endanger other people's lives.
2) N-PLURAL: the N The people is sometimes used to refer to ordinary men and women, in contrast to the government or the upper classes....the will of the people.
...a tremendous rift between the people and their leadership.
3) N-COUNT-COLL A people is all the men, women, and children of a particular country or race....the native peoples of Central and South America...
It's a triumph for the American people.
4) VERB: usu passive If a place or country is peopled by a particular group of people, that group of people live there.[be V-ed by/with n] It was peopled by a fiercely independent race of peace-loving Buddhists.
[V-ed] ...a small town peopled by lay workers and families.
Syn:5) VERB If something such as a story or a time in history is peopled with people of a particular kind, those people occur or exist in it. [LITERARY][be V-ed with/by n] Grass's novels are peopled with outlandish characters...
[be V-ed with/by n] British history of the 19th Century is peopled by energetic reformers...
[V n] Other people had the gift of peopling their lives with friends and colleagues.
English dictionary. 2008.
