unperson
noun, verb
unperson is a noun meaning “A person who has been stripped of rights, identity, or humanity” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled U-N-P-E-R-S-O-N, and it appears about once in every 81 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of unperson is unpersons or unpeople.
What does unperson mean?
noun
- 1
A person who has been stripped of rights, identity, or humanity.
With his identity stolen, he became an unperson, unable to prove his existence to the government.
verb
- 1
To strip (a person) of rights, identity, or humanity; to dehumanize.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of unperson
- unpersons plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- unpeople plural
- unpersoning participle, present
- unpersoned participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is unperson?
Unperson appears about once in every 81 million words in written English, the 286,585th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Unperson in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense human stripped of rights:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Portuguese | impessoa, despessoa |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does unperson come from?
From un- + person. Coined by George Orwell in 1949 as part of the Newspeak in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, where it refers to a person who has been executed or has fallen out of favor; whose entire history has been erased.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).