people

Multiple Entries:
  people    person  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
people/ˈpiːpl/

▶plural noun

• 1 human beings in general or considered collectively.

  ■ (the people) the mass of citizens in a country; the populace.

• 2 (pl. peoples) [treated as sing. or pl.] a particular nation, community, or ethnic group: the native peoples of Canada.

• 3 (one's people) one's employees or supporters.

• 4 (one's people) dated one's parents or relatives.

▶verb

• 1 (of a particular group of people) inhabit.

  ■ fill or be present in.

• 2 fill (an area or place) with a particular group of inhabitants.

– derivatives
peoplehood noun.

– origin ME: from Anglo-Norman Fr. poeple, from L. populus ‘populace’.

usage: On the distinction between people and persons, see usage at person.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
person/ˈpɜːsn/

▶noun (pl. people or persons)

• 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 person.

  ■ a character in a play or story.

  ■ an individual's body: concealed on his person.

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

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

– phrases
in person with the personal presence or action of the individual specified.

– origin ME: from OFr. persone, from L. persona ‘actor's mask, character in a play’, later ‘human being’.

usage: The words people and persons 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 persons.