individual

noun, adj — 7 senses

individual

noun

US /ˌɪndɪˈvɪd͡ʒ(u)əl/ · /ɪndɪˈvɪd͡ʒʊəl/

Etymology PIE word *dwóh₁ From Medieval Latin indīviduālis, from Latin indīviduum (“an indivisible thing”), neuter of indīviduus (“indivisible, undivided”), from in + dīviduus (“divisible”), from dīvidō (“divide”).

1

A person considered alone, rather than as belonging to a group of people.

  • He is an unusual individual.
  • “You have to be an individual,” said Ms. Smoke, a 40-year-old saleswoman, as she sipped her beverage. “You can’t just get black coffee.”2024 September 16, Priya Krishna, “The Customized Drink Is Out of Control”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Sep 2024:
2

Law A single physical human being as a legal subject, as opposed to a legal person such as a corporation.

  • Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination […].1982, Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms:
3

An object, be it a thing or an agent, as contrasted to a class.

  • It is typically held that chairs, trees, rocks, people and many of the so-called ‘everyday’ objects we encounter can be regarded as individuals.2006, Steven French, “Identity and Individuality in Quantum Theory”, in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
  • In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual.2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:
4

Mathematics, Sciences, Statistics An element belonging to a population.

individual

adj

Etymology PIE word *dwóh₁ From Medieval Latin indīviduālis, from Latin indīviduum (“an indivisible thing”), neuter of indīviduus (“indivisible, undivided”), from in + dīviduus (“divisible”), from dīvidō (“divide”).

1

Relating to a single person or thing as opposed to more than one.

  • Near-synonyms: individuated, solitary, self-standing, freestanding
  • As we can't print them all together, the individual pages will have to be printed one by one.
1 more example
  • Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.2013 June 1, “End of the peer show”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 71:
2

Intended for a single person as opposed to more than one person.

  • individual personal pension
  • individual cream cakes
3

Not divisible without losing its identity.

  • Near-synonyms: unatomizable, indivisible, undividable
Derived terms
26 termsbioindividual, extraindividual, individualise, individualism, individualistic, individual item picking, individuality, individualization, individualize, individually, individual medley, individualness, individual psychology, individual pursuit, individual sport, individual time trial, individual voluntary arrangement, induhvidual, interindividual, intraindividual, nonindividual, subindividual, superindividual, supraindividual, transindividual, unindividual

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.