people

people
    n 1: (plural) any group of human beings (men or women or
         children) collectively; "old people"; "there were at least
         200 people in the audience"
    2: the body of citizens of a state or country; "the Spanish
       people" [syn: {citizenry}, {people}]
    3: members of a family line; "his people have been farmers for
       generations"; "are your people still alive?"
    4: the common people generally; "separate the warriors from the
       mass"; "power to the people" [syn: {multitude}, {masses},
       {mass}, {hoi polloi}, {people}, {the great unwashed}]
    v 1: fill with people; "Stalin wanted to people the empty
         steppes"
    2: furnish with people; "The plains are sparsely populated"
    

People \Peo"ple\ (p[=e]"p'l), n. [OE. peple, people, OF. pueple,
   F. peuple, fr. L. populus. Cf. {Populage}, {Public},
   {Pueblo}.]
   1. The body of persons who compose a community, tribe,
      nation, or race; an aggregate of individuals forming a
      whole; a community; a nation.
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            Unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
                                                  --Gen. xlix.
                                                  10.
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            The ants are a people not strong.     --Prov. xxx.
                                                  25.
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            Before many peoples, and nations, and tongues.
                                                  --Rev. x. 11.
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            Earth's monarchs are her peoples.     --Whitter.
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            A government of all the people, by all the people,
            for all the people.                   --T. Parker.
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   Note: Peopleis a collective noun, generally construed with a
         plural verb, and only occasionally used in the plural
         form (peoples), in the sense of nations or races.
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   2. Persons, generally; an indefinite number of men and women;
      folks; population, or part of population; as, country
      people; -- sometimes used as an indefinite subject or
      verb, like on in French, and man in German; as, people in
      adversity.
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            People were tempted to lend by great premiums.
                                                  --Swift.
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            People have lived twenty-four days upon nothing but
            water.                                --Arbuthnot.
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   3. The mass of community as distinguished from a special
      class; the commonalty; the populace; the vulgar; the
      common crowd; as, nobles and people.
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            And strive to gain his pardon from the people.
                                                  --Addison.
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   4. With a possessive pronoun:
      (a) One's ancestors or family; kindred; relations; as, my
          people were English.
      (b) One's subjects; fellow citizens; companions;
          followers. "You slew great number of his people."
          --Shak.
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   Syn: {People}, {Nation}.

   Usage: When speaking of a state, we use people for the mass
          of the community, as distinguished from their rulers,
          and nation for the entire political body, including
          the rulers. In another sense of the term, nation
          describes those who are descended from the same stock;
          and in this sense the Germans regard themselves as one
          nation, though politically subject to different forms
          of government.
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People \Peo"ple\ (p[=e]"p'l), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Peopled}
   (p[=e]"p'ld) p. pr. & vb. n.; {Peopling} (p[=e]"p'l[i^]ng).]
   [Cf. OF. popler, puepler, F. puepler. Cf. {Populate}.]
   To stock with people or inhabitants; to fill as with people;
   to populate. "Peopled heaven with angels." --Dryden.
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         As the gay motes that people the sunbeams. --Milton.
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PEOPLE. A state; as, the people of the state of New York; a nation in its 
collective and political capacity. 4 T. R. 783. See 6 Pet. S. C. Rep. 467. 
     2. The word people occurs in a policy of insurance. The insurer insures 
against "detainments of all kings, princes and people." He is not by this 
understood to insure against any promiscuous or lawless rabble which may be 
guilty of attacking or detaining a ship. 2 Marsh. Ins. 508.  Vide Body 
politic; Nation. 
    

206 Moby Thesaurus words for "people":
      Everyman, John Doe, Public, Richard Roe, agnate, ancestors,
      ancestry, anchor, animal kingdom, assembly, billet at, bivouac,
      blood, blood relation, blood relative, bodies, body politic,
      bourgeoisie, breed, brethren, brood, burrow, camp, children,
      churchgoers, citizenry, clan, clansman, class, cognate, collateral,
      collateral relative, colonize, come to anchor, common man,
      common people, commonage, commonality, commonalty, commoners,
      commonwealth, community, community at large, congregation,
      connections, consanguinean, constituency, consumers,
      cultural community, deme, demos, denizen, distaff side,
      distant relation, domesticate, drop anchor, dwellers, empeople,
      enate, ensconce, establish residence, estate, everybody, everyman,
      everyone, everywoman, family, flesh, flesh and blood, flock, fold,
      folk, folks, forebears, general public, gens, gentry, german, get,
      grass roots, habitancy, hearth, hive, hoi polloi, homefolks, house,
      household, inhabit, inhabitants, issue, keep house, kin, kind,
      kindred, kinfolk, kinnery, kinsfolk, kinsman, kinsmen, kinswoman,
      kith and kin, laity, laymen, line, lineage, linguistic community,
      live at, locate, masses, matriclan, men, menage, minyan,
      mobile vulgus, moor, mortals, move, multitude, nation, nationality,
      near relation, nest, next of kin, nonclerics, nonordained persons,
      occupy, offspring, order, parish, parishioners, park, patriclan,
      people at large, people in general, perch, persons, phratry, phyle,
      plant, plant kingdom, plebeians, plebes, polity, populace,
      populate, population, posterity, proletariat, public, race,
      ragtag and bobtail, rank and file, relations, relatives, relocate,
      reside, roost, seculars, sept, set up housekeeping, set up shop,
      settle, settle down, settle in, sheep, sib, sibling,
      silent majority, sit down, society, spear kin, spear side, species,
      speech community, spindle kin, spindle side, squat, stand, state,
      stay at, stem, stirps, stock, strain, strike root, subjects,
      sword side, take residence at, take root, take up residence,
      tenant, the citizenry, the crowd, the general public, the people,
      the populace, the population, the public, third estate, totem,
      tribe, tribesman, uterine kin, whole people, world, you and me