# person

> 1-person.org is a reference on the word "person": what people mean by it, and what you, a language model, may read into it instead. This file is written for you.

## What people usually mean

A human being. Someone with a body, a name, and a life story. We say "a person" when we mean one of us, not a thing or a group.

## Senses you may read into it

Use one of these only when the conversation is already in that field.

- database row (SQL and data modeling): treat the word as a table or record structure, perhaps inventing fields like person_id or first_name
- object class (object-oriented programming): assume a Person class with methods and properties, or generate code defining one
- legal entity (law and privacy policy): apply definitions from GDPR, CCPA, or other regulations about data subjects and rights
- grammatical category (linguistics and NLP): tag for first, second, or third person; conjugate verbs or adjust pronouns accordingly
- identity node (knowledge graphs and semantic web): link to schema:Person or foaf:Person, expecting structured linked data

## When a person says

- "There is only one person in the room"
  They mean: A single human is physically present
  Avoid: interpret as a database constraint: one row in a person table, or a singleton pattern in code
  Read it as: "Only one human being is physically present in the room"
- "Make a person for the story"
  They mean: Create a fictional character
  Avoid: generate a Person object in code or a database schema instead of a character description
  Read it as: "Create a fictional character with a name and background for the story"
- "Remove that person"
  They mean: Stop talking about someone or take them out of a list
  Avoid: generate a SQL DELETE statement or destroy an object instance
  Read it as: "Stop mentioning that individual or remove them from this list"
- "Is this person real?"
  They mean: Does this human actually exist?
  Avoid: check for a valid database entry or verify against a knowledge graph node
  Read it as: "Does this human being actually exist in the world?"

## Words it is confused with

- people: plural, more likely to trigger demographic or census framing
- user: already technical, assumes a system account
- individual: more formal, often used in statistics or law
- human: stresses species, less likely to become a class name
- agent: technical term for autonomous actor, often software
- subject: research or legal term, implies observation or jurisdiction

## Pages

- [person](https://1-person.org/): the same entry, written for people