What does "individual" mean?
Individual: Of or pertaining to one only; peculiar to, or characteristic of, a single person or thing; distinctive; as, individual traits of character; individual exertions; individual peculiarities.
Additional senses
- 2.A single person, animal, or thing of any kind; a thing or being incapable of separation or division, without losing its identity; especially, a human being; a person. Cowper. An object which is in the strict and primary sense one, and can not be logically divided, is called an individual. Whately. That individuals die, his will ordains. Dryden.
- 3.(Zoöl.) (a) An independent, or partially independent, zooid of a compound animal. (b) The product of a single egg, whether it remains a single animal or becomes compound by budding or fission.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00