# people

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈpi.pəl/ · frequency rank #66

## Definitions
1. plural of person: a body of persons considered generally or collectively; a group of two or more persons.
2. Persons forming or belonging to a particular group, such as a nation, class, ethnic group, country, family, etc.
3. A group of persons regarded as being servants, followers, companions or subjects of a ruler or leader.
4. One's colleagues or employees.
5. A person's ancestors, relatives or family.
6. The mass of a community as distinguished from a special class (elite); the commonalty; the populace; the vulgar; the common crowd; the citizens.
7. People in general, humans, by extension sentient beings real or fictional.

## Etymology
From Middle English puple, peple, peeple, from Anglo-Norman people, from Old French pueple, peuple, pople, from Latin populus (“a people, nation”), from Old Latin populus, from earlier poplus, from even earlier poplos, from Proto-Italic *poplos (“army”) of unknown origin. Doublet of pueblo. Gradually ousted native English lede and, partially, folk.
Originally used with singular verbs (e.g. "the people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness" in the King James Version of 2 Samuel 17:29), the plural aspect of people is probably due to influence from Middle English lede, leed, a plural since Old English times; see lēode.

## Easily confused with
- **pope** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/people-vs-pope)
- **pole** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/people-vs-pole)
- **Pepe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/people-vs-pepe)
- **Poole** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/people-vs-poole)
- **purple** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/people-vs-purple)
- **poodle** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/people-vs-poodle)
- **pimple** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/people-vs-pimple)
- **peoples** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/people-vs-peoples)
- **people's** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/people-vs-people-s)
- **Pele** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pele-vs-people)
- **pebble** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pebble-vs-people)
- **peddle** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/peddle-vs-people)
- **penile** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penile-vs-people)

## Common misspellings (8)
`epople`, `peolpe`, `peopel`, `peoplle`, `peopple`, `pepole`, `poeple`, `ppeople`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/people