people

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Humans considered as a group or in indefinite numbers: People were dancing in the street. I met all sorts of people.
2. n. A body of persons living in the same country under one national government; a nationality.
3. n. A body of persons sharing a common religion, culture, language, or inherited condition of life.
4. n. Persons with regard to their residence, class, profession, or group: city people.
5. n. The mass of ordinary persons; the populace. Used with the: "those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes” ( Thomas Jefferson).
6. n. The citizens of a political unit, such as a nation or state; the electorate. Used with the.
7. n. Persons subordinate to or loyal to a ruler, superior, or employer: The queen showed great compassion for her people.
8. n. Family, relatives, or ancestors.
9. n. Informal Animals or other beings distinct from humans: Rabbits and squirrels are the furry little people of the woods.
10. v. To furnish with or as if with people; populate.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The whole body of persons who compose a community, tribe, race, or nation: as, the people of England; the people of Israel.
2. n. The mass of persons inhabiting a place; subjects or citizens, as distinguished from their rulers or from men of rank or men of authority in any profession; the commonalty; the populace: usually preceded by the definite article: as, the king and the people; one of the people; the darling of the people.
3. n. Those who are closely connected with a person as subjects, domestics, attendants, followers, etc.; also, one's family, relatives, etc.: as, a pastor and his people.
4. n. Persons; any persons indefinitely; men: a collective noun taking a verb in the plural, and admitting in colloquial use a numeral adjective: as, people may say what they please; a number of country people were there; people of fashion; there were not ten people present.
5. n. Human beings; men.
6. n. A set or crowd; company.
7. n. Synonyms People, Nation, Race, Tribe, Clan. People stands for the ruled in distinction from the rulers, as king and people, or for the mass of the community, etc., without thought of any distinction between rulers and ruled. The word nation stands for a political body viewed as a whole. The unity may be ethnic, instead of political; this sense, however, is less common. Race is the most common word for all those who seem to make a whole in community of descent and are too numerous to be called a tribe, clan, or family: as, the Anglo-Saxon race is one branch of the Germanic, tracing its descent through certain Low German tribes. Tribe, apart from certain peculiar meanings, stands for a subdivision of a race: as, the twelve tribes of Israel; ordinarily the word is not applied to civilized persons; we speak of tribes of Indians, Arabs, Africans. Clan is used chiefly of the old organization of kinsmen among the Scotch Highlanders; where used of others, it expresses a similar organization, with intense loyalty and partizanship.
8. To stock with people or inhabitants; populate.

Wiktionary

1. n. Used as plural of person; a body of human beings considered generally or collectively; a group of two or more persons.
2. n. Persons forming or belonging to a particular group, such as a nation, class, ethnic group, country, family, etc; folk; community.
3. n. A group of persons regarded as being employees, followers, companions or subjects of a ruler.
4. n. One's colleagues or employees.
5. n. A person's ancestors, relatives or family.
6. n. The mass of a community as distinguished from a special class (elite); the commonalty; the populace; the vulgar; the common crowd; the citizens.
7. v. transitive To stock with people or inhabitants; to fill as with people; to populate.
8. v. intransitive To become populous or populated.
9. v. transitive To inhabit; to occupy; to populate.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The body of persons who compose a community, tribe, nation, or race; an aggregate of individuals forming a whole; a community; a nation.
2. n. Persons, generally; an indefinite number of men and women; folks; population, or part of population; ; -- sometimes used as an indefinite subject or verb, like on in French, and man in German.
3. n. The mass of community as distinguished from a special class; the commonalty; the populace; the vulgar; the common crowd.
4. n. One's ancestors or family; kindred; relations.
5. n. One's subjects; fellow citizens; companions; followers.
6. v. To stock with people or inhabitants; to fill as with people; to populate.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the body of citizens of a state or country
2. v. furnish with people
3. n. (plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively
4. v. fill with people
5. n. members of a family line
6. n. the common people generally