individual

• individuall (obsolete)

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”). Displaced native Old English hād (“person, individual”).

• (Received Pronunciation)
  • (yod-coalescence) IPA^(key): /ɪndɪˈvɪd͡ʒʊəl/, /ɪndɪˈvɪd͡ʒʊl/
  • (no yod-coalescence) IPA^(key): /ɪndɪˈvɪdjʊəl/, /ɪndɪˈvɪdjʊl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɪndɪˈvɪd͡ʒ(u)əl/, /ˌɪndə-/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

individual (plural individuals)

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

   He is an unusual individual.

   • 2024 September 16, Priya Krishna, “The Customized Drink Is Out of Control”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 September 2024:

     “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.”

2. (law) A single physical human being as a legal subject, as opposed to a legal person such as a corporation.
   • 1982, Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms:

     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 […].

3. An object, be it a thing or an agent, as contrasted to a class.
   • 2006, Steven French, “Identity and Individuality in Quantum Theory”, in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy‎^[2]:

     It is typically held that chairs, trees, rocks, people and many of the so-called ‘everyday’ objects we encounter can be regarded as individuals.

   • 2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:

     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.

4. (statistics) An element belonging to a population.

individual (comparative more individual, superlative most individual)

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

   Synonym: single

   Antonym: collective

   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.

   • 2013 June 1, “End of the peer show”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 71:

     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.

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

   Synonyms: personal, single

   Antonyms: group, joint, shared, collective

   individual personal pension;   individual cream cakes

3. Not divisible without losing its identity.

   Near-synonyms: unatomizable, indivisible, undividable

• “individual”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “individual”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• Raymond Williams (1983), “Individual”, in Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, revised American edition, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, published 1985, →ISBN, page 161.

Borrowed from Russian индивидуа́льный (individuálʹnyj).

• IPA^(key): [individuˈɑɫ]

individual (comparative daha individual, superlative ən individual)

1. synonym of fərdi

• IPA^(key): (Northern, Central, Northwestern) [in.di.βi.ðuˈal]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [in.di.vi.ðuˈal]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

individual m or f (masculine and feminine plural individuals)

1. individual

• individualisme
• individualista
• individualitzar
• individualment

• individu
• individualitat

• “individual”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

individual m or f (plural individuais)

1. individual

• individualismo
• individualista
• individualizar
• individualmente

• individuo
• individualidade

• “individual”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2026

From indivíduo + -al.

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: in‧di‧vi‧du‧al

individual m or f (plural individuais)

1. individual

• individualismo
• individualista
• individualmente

• indivíduo

• “individual”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

• индивидуал (individual) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling

Borrowed from French individuel. By surface analysis, individ + -ual.

• IPA^(key): /in.di.vi.duˈal/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -al
• Hyphenation: in‧di‧vi‧du‧al

individual m or n (feminine singular individuală, masculine plural individuali, feminine/neuter plural individuale)

1. individual

• individualism
• individualist
• individualitate

• “individual”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026

• IPA^(key): /indibiˈdwal/ [ĩn̪.d̪i.β̞iˈð̞wal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: in‧di‧vi‧dual

individual m or f (masculine and feminine plural individuales)

1. individual
2. case-by-case
3. one-on-one (e.g., relationship or bond)
4. one-man (e.g., a one-man show)
5. personal, individualized

individual m (plural individuales)

1. place mat

   Synonym: salvamanteles

• “individual”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025