persona

Borrowed from Latin persōna (“mask; character”), of uncertain origin. Suggested to be from Etruscan 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu, “mask; masked individual; actor”), which could be a loan from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον (prósōpon, “face; appearance; mask used in ancient theatre to denote a character or, more generally, a social role”). Doublet of person and parson.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɝˈsoʊnə/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɜːˈsəʊnə/, /pəˈsəʊnə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: per‧so‧na
• Rhymes: -əʊnə

persona (plural personas or personae or personæ)

1. A social role.
2. A character played by an actor.
3. (psychology) The mask or appearance one presents to the world.

   He keeps his online persona completely separate from his real-world one.

   • 2020 July 30, Ben Cost, “Wokefish’ dating trend: Shady men are pretending to be progressive on apps”, in New York Post‎^[2], archived from the original on 6 October 2020:

     The latest in a long line of dirty dating tactics to emerge is “wokefishing,” a term coined by writer Serena Smith. “People masquerade as holding progressive political views to ensnare potential partners,” Smith told Vice. Wokefishermen can be thought of like catfishers — those who use fake online personas to defraud victims — but only for sex instead of money.

4. (marketing, user experience) An imaginary person representing a particular type of client or customer, considered when designing products and services that will appeal to them.
   • 2014, Ira Kaufman, Chris Horton, Digital Marketing, page 128:

     To do so, your organization should create nuanced buyer personas for all relevant market segments or buyer groups that demonstrate affinity to your brand. These buyer personas should include standard demographic information […]

• alter ego
• moniker

• persona on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Persona (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Alter ego on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Pearson, Peronas, S'porean, pronase

From Latin persōna (“person”).

persona f (plural persones)

1. person

Borrowed from Latin persona.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [pərˈso.nə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [peɾˈso.na]

• Audio (Catalonia):

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• Rhymes: -ona

persona f (plural persones)

1. person

• personificar

• personal
• personatge

• “persona”, 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
• “persona”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “persona” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “persona” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From English persona, ultimately from Latin persōna. Doublet with persoon (“person”).

• Audio:

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persona f (plural persona's, no diminutive)

1. (marketing, user experience) an imaginary person representing a particular type of client or customer, considered when designing products and services that will appeal to them; a persona

• IPA^(key): /perˈsona/

• Audio 1:

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• Audio 2:

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• Rhymes: -ona
• Syllabification: per‧so‧na

persona (accusative singular personan, plural personaj, accusative plural personajn)

1. personal

persona

1. essive singular of perso

Learned borrowing from Latin persōna. Doublet of person.

• IPA^(key): [pərˈsona]
• Rhymes: -na, -a
• Hyphenation: pêr‧so‧na

pêrsona

1. person,
   1. an individual; usually a human being
   2. (grammar) a linguistic category used to distinguish between the speaker of an utterance and those to whom or about whom he is speaking
2. persona,
   1. a social role
   2. the mask or appearance one presents to the world

• “persona”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

persona (plural personas)

1. person

• gente
• populo

From Latin persōna (“person”), of Etruscan origin.

• IPA^(key): /perˈso.na/

• Audio:

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• Audio:

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• Rhymes: -ona
• Hyphenation: per‧só‧na

persona f (plural persone)

1. person, pl people, persons
2. someone, somebody, anybody

   Synonyms: qualcuno, nessuno

3. body, figure
4. (law) person, body

   Synonyms: corpo, personale, aspetto

5. (psychology) persona

• (person (plural)): gente

• serpano, spanerò, sperano, sperona

• porsona (Fascian)

From Latin persōna (“person”).

persona f (plural persones)

1. person

• presona

Inherited from Old Spanish persona, from Latin persōna (“mask used by actor; role, part, character”), perhaps a loanword from Etruscan *𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (*φersu, “mask”), from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον (prósōpon).

persona f (Hebrew spelling פירסונה)^[1]

1. person (individual)
   • 1979, Kamelia Shahar, “La verdadera felisidad”, in Aki Yerushalayim, number 1, page 6:

     Sus madre viendolos tristes i abatidos les disho: Mis ijos, basta de kreyer solo en la rikeza. La persona verderamente oroza es la ke se kontenta kon lo ke le dio el Dió.

     Their mother, seeing them sad and humbled, said to them: My children, stop believing only in wealth. The person who is truly happy is the one who is content with what God has given them.

Ultimately from Latin persona. Cognates include Latvian persona.

• IPA^(key): [ˈpʲɛ̀rsɔna]
• Hyphenation: per‧so‧na

persona f

1. person

• Nicole Nau (2011), A short grammar of Latgalian, München: LINCOM GmbH, →ISBN, page 27

Unknown; two etymologies have been suggested:

• Derived from Etruscan 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu, “mask, masked actor”), possibly via a hypothetical *𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖𐌍𐌀 (*φersuna, “belonging or pertaining to a φersu”)^[1] which many etymologists further propose was derived from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον (prósōpon, “mask, character”).
• From personāre (“to sound through”); this is the etymology often proposed by Roman writers, but it is unlikely, considering the discrepancy between the length of the /o/ in this verb and in persōna.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [pɛrˈsoː.na]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [perˈsɔː.na]

persōna f (genitive persōnae); first declension

1. mask
2. character, personage, role
3. personality, character, individuality
4. (grammar) person
5. (Late Latin, Medieval Latin) person
   • 6th c. CE, Boethius, Contra Eutychen et Nestorium 4:

     Sed esse Chrīstum manifestē ac vērāciter confitēmur; ūnum igitur esse dīcimus Chrīstum. Quod sī ita est, ūnam quoque Chrīstī sine dubitātiōne persōnam esse necesse est. Nam sī duae persōnae essent, ūnus esse nōn posset; duōs vērō esse dīcere Chrīstōs nihil est aliud nisi praecipitātae mentis īnsānia.

     But we clearly and truly confess profess that Christ exists, and so we say He is one. This being the case, it must follow without doubt that the person of Christ is also one. If there were two persons, then there could not be one, so to say that there are two Christs is nothing but the insanity of distraught mind.

6. (Medieval Latin) a lord
7. (Medieval Latin) dignity

First-declension noun.

• persolla
• persōnālis

• “persona”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “persona”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "persona", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “persona”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “persona”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “persona”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Inflection of the verb personō.

personā

1. second-person singular active imperative of personō

From Latin persōna (“person”).

persona f (4th declension)

1. person
2. individual
3. character

• personna (Western orthographies)
• persuna (Eastern phonetic orthographies)

From Latin persōna.

• IPA^(key): /perˈsoːna/
  • IPA^(key): [pe̞rˈsuːnɑ]
  • IPA^(key): [pe̞rˈhuːnɑ] (Prealpine)
  • IPA^(key): [pärˈtsoːnä] (Ticinese)
  • IPA^(key): [pe̞rˈsu(ː)ŋä] (Western varieties)

persona f (plural persone)

1. person

Inherited from Old Occitan persona, from Latin persōna.

• Audio (Béarn):

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persona f (plural personas)

1. person

persona

1. alternative form of pessõa

• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “persona”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega

Inherited from Latin persōna (“mask used by actor; role, part, character”), perhaps a loanword from Etruscan *𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (*φersu, “mask”), from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον (prósōpon).

persona

1. person (individual)

• Occitan: persona

• “persona”, in Dictionnaire de l’occitan médiéval en ligne (in German and French), Munich: LMU, 2013–2026

• presona

Borrowed from Latin persōna (“mask used by actor; role, part, character”), possibly from Etruscan 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu, “mask”).

persona f (plural personas)

1. person (individual)

• Ladino: persona, פירסונה
• Spanish: persona

• Ralph Steele Boggs et al. (1946), “persona”, in Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, volume II, Chapel Hill, page 392

Learned borrowing from Latin persōna. Doublet of personat.

• IPA^(key): /pɛrˈsɔ.na/

• Audio:

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• Rhymes: -ɔna
• Syllabification: per‧so‧na

persona f

1. (literary) person (individual substance of a rational nature; usually a human being)

   Synonym: osoba

2. (ironic) personage (famous or important person)

• persona in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• persona in Polish dictionaries at PWN

• IPA^(key): /peɾˈsona/ [peɾˈso.na]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ona
• Syllabification: per‧so‧na

From Latin persōna (“person”).^[1] Cognate with English person.

persona f (plural personas)

1. person (an individual; usually a human being)

   Synonym: individuo

   • 2025 January 2, Alaa Elassar, “El conductor del Tesla Cybertruck se disparó antes de la explosión, dice la policía”, in CNN en Español‎^[3]:

     Las autoridades no están identificando a Livelsberger como la persona encontrada dentro del Cybertruck porque el cuerpo encontrado dentro del vehículo estaba quemado hasta quedar irreconocible, dijo el sheriff de Las Vegas, Kevin McMahill, en una conferencia de prensa este jueves.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2025 November 26, “Juez federal dice que los oficiales de inmigración en Colorado solo pueden arrestar a quienes corren el riesgo de huir”, in CNN en Español‎^[4], sourced from Associated Press:

     Un juez federal dictaminó el martes que los oficiales de inmigración en Colorado solo pueden arrestar a personas sin una orden judicial si creen que es probable que esas personas huyan.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. a socially distinguished person, a personality
3. a wise or otherwise excellent person
4. a character (an individual with a specific role in a literary work)

• This noun does not change; even when addressing males.

persona

1. only used in se persona, third-person singular present indicative of personarse
2. only used in te ... persona, syntactic variant of persónate, second-person singular imperative of personarse

• “persona”, 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

From Latin persona. First attested in 1973. Doublet of person.

persona c

1. (psychology) a persona (the appearance one presents to the world)

• persona in Svenska Akademiens ordböcker