noun
Meaning 1
A social role.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- I've maintained a very public persona.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
persona
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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General-American: /pɝˈsoʊnə/
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Received-Pronunciation: /pɜːˈsəʊnə/
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Received-Pronunciation: /pəˈsəʊnə/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -əʊnə
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CMU ARPABET: P ER0 S OW1 N AH0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
A character played by an actor.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
The mask or appearance one presents to the world.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: human-sciences, psychology, sciences
Examples
- He keeps his online persona completely separate from his real-world one.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
An imaginary person representing a particular type of client or customer, considered when designing products and services that will appeal to them.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Qualifier: user experience
Topics: business, marketing
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
(Jungian psychology) a personal facade that one presents to the world
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- a public image is as fragile as Humpty Dumpty
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: image
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: appearance, visual aspect
noun
Meaning 6
an actor's portrayal of someone in a play
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- she played the part of Desdemona
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: character, role, theatrical role, part
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: portrayal, characterization, enactment, personation
Narrower terms: bit part, minor role, heavy, hero, ingenue, title role, name part, heroine, villain, baddie
History
Etymology
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.
Across languages
Translations
29 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Chinese Mandarin: 人物 (rénwù) — social role
- French: rôle social m casquette — social role
- Hindi: व्यक्तित्व (vyaktitva) — social role
- Hungarian: társadalmi/szociális szerep — social role
- Swedish: profil c framtoning — social role
- Ukrainian: суспі́льна роль (suspílʹna rolʹ) — social role
- French: personnage — character played by an actor
- Hindi: चरित्र (caritra) — character played by an actor
- Hindi: पात्र (pātra) — character played by an actor
- Hungarian: szerep — character played by an actor
- Hungarian: szereplő — character played by an actor
- Macedonian: лик (lik) — character played by an actor
- Portuguese: personagem — character played by an actor
- Russian: персона́ж (personáž) — character played by an actor
- Serbo-Croatian: ли̑к — character played by an actor
- Serbo-Croatian: lȋk — character played by an actor
- Spanish: personaje — character played by an actor
- Turkish: kişilik — character played by an actor
- Ukrainian: персона́ж (personáž) — character played by an actor
- French: persona — the appearance one presents to the world
- German: Persona — the appearance one presents to the world
- Hungarian: perszóna — the appearance one presents to the world
- Hungarian: személyiség — the appearance one presents to the world
- Russian: персо́на (persóna) — the appearance one presents to the world
- Spanish: personaje — the appearance one presents to the world
- Swedish: persona c image c fasad — the appearance one presents to the world
- Turkish: çehre — the appearance one presents to the world
- Ukrainian: персо́на (persóna) — the appearance one presents to the world
- Portuguese: perfil — imaginary person representing a particular type of client or customer
Real reading context