- entity
- entity, being, creature, individual, person are comparable when meaning something which has real and independent existence.Entity, the most consistently abstract of these terms, implies such existence not only in the actual world but also in the realm of thought. An entity may be seen or heard or it may be invisible, intangible, or imaginary, but it may be thought of as really existing{
that entity which we call an automobile
}{is democracy an entity?
}{his country is to him an entity, a concrete and organic force, with whose work in the world he is extremely proud to be natively associated— Brownell
}{I introduce the entity called light to the readers of this book: as an entity consisting of particles— Darrow
}{for the good of that mystical entity, different from and superior to the mere individuals composing it, the Nation— Huxley
}Being is for practical purposes definable in much the same terms as entity; however, it seldom retains the abstract meaning given to it by philosophers but easily slides into another and related sense, that of something or someone having material or immaterial existence, possessing qualities, properties, and attributes, and exciting thought or feelings{the Supreme Being
}{a human being
}{a corporation is an artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of law— John Marshall
}{a period during which there exist in the universe beings capable of speculating about the universe and its fluctuations— Eddington
}{doing her best to do the extraordinary things required of her, but essentially a being of passive dignities, living chiefly for them— H. G. Wells
}Creature, in its most general sense, is the correlative of creator: it refers to any created thing, whether viewed as the creation of God or of natural influences{we are all God's creatures
}{as a child, I was inordinately fond of grasshoppers. For one of these creatures— Grandgent
}In this, its usual sense, creature is a general term including all living beings, but especially all animals and men. Often, as a modification of this sense, creature refers to a human being regarded as an object of pity, scorn, congratulation, or reprobation{Mrs. Long is as good a creature as ever lived— Austen
}{it was against a creature like this that we plotted— Meredith
}In a narrower sense creature often refers to someone or something that is the creation of some power or influence and that, usually, is subject to it or obedient to its will{he ... was the Queen Mother's creature— Belloc
}{the evil in the moral order of the world is part of that world—and its own creature— Alexander
}{imagination is always the creature of desire— Krutch
}Individual, in its fundamental sense, refers to whatever may be regarded as an entity or being, but the term stresses rather its incapacity for being divided and its existence as a unit{an individual is that which cannot be divided without ceasing to be what it is— Archbishop Thomson
}Individual, therefore, in ordinary language applies to a single member of a conceivable group, especially of human beings, and is often used in contrast with such general or comprehensive terms as society, race, or family{the individual rebelled against restraint; society wanted to do what it pleased— Henry Adams
}{art . . . tends to reconcile the individual with the universal, by exciting in him impersonal emotion— Galsworthy
}{the equipment of the higher animals . . . is needed less for the good of the individual than for the good of the race— Ellis
}Concretely, individual is often used of a person who strikes one as rich in nature and as standing strongly alone or independently{Donne would have been an individual at any time and place— T. S. Eliot
}but occasionally it is used contemptuously to describe one who makes himself unpleasantly conspicuous (as by undue familiarity, blatancy, or general obnoxiousness){the individual who had sat himself down by me produced a little box and offered me a lozenge— Jefferies
}Person in its most common modern use denotes an individual human being without reference to sex, age, or identity{there were five thousand persons at the meeting
}{he knew but one person in the throng
}{a commission of inquiry empowered to examine persons and papers
}Person is often found in other and richer senses, most of which involve the idea of the manifestation or the sustaining of a clearly defined character; sometimes it implies an entity distinguished from one's body yet somehow associated with it{we observe . . . to begin with, that our bodies are not we,—not our proper persons— Mozley
}{never needing to assert the dignity of his person
}and sometimes it implies this character as manifest to others{the boy is becoming a real person
}{everybody recognized him as a person
}Sometimes (as in law) person may refer not only to a man{a natural person
}but to a corporate body{an artificial, or juristic, person
}either of which has rights and duties that are recognized{a state, a church, and a corporation are in the eyes of the law persons
}Again (as in Christian theology), person denotes one of the distinct modes of being in which the Supreme Being manifests Himself to men{one God in three divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost
}Sometimes, also, person may refer to the body of a human being or to his appearance, but even in these uses it usually suggests a body informed by a spirit or personality{he suffered injury to his person and damage to his property
}{Mr. Wickham was ... far beyond them all in person, countenance, air, and walk— Austen
}{appear in person
}{England . . . had stolen a kingdom ... in Africa, and seized the person of its king— Shaw
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
