personal

• personall (obsolete)

From Middle English personal, personele, from Anglo-Norman personel, personal, personell, Old French personal, personel, from Late Latin persōnālis (“of a person, personly”), equivalent to person +‎ -al. Doublet of personnel.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɜː.sə.nəl/, /ˈpɜːs.nəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɝ.sə.nəl/, /ˈpɝs.nəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: per‧son‧al, perso‧nal

personal (comparative more personal, superlative most personal)

1. Pertaining to persons (human beings as opposed to things or animals).
2. Of or pertaining to a particular person; relating to, or affecting, an individual, or each of many individuals

   personal values personal desire

   Her song was her personal look at the values of friendship.

   • 2014 March 3, Zoe Alderton, “‘Snapewives’ and ‘Snapeism’: A Fiction-Based Religion within the Harry Potter Fandom”, in Religions‎, volume 5, number 1, MDPI, →DOI, pages 219–257:

     Despite personal schisms and differences in spiritual experience, there is a very coherent theology of Snape shared between the wives. To examine this manifestation of religious fandom, I will first discuss the canon scepticism and anti-Rowling sentiment that helps to contextualise the wider belief in Snape as a character who extends beyond book and film.

   • 2015 October 27, Matt Preston, The Simple Secrets to Cooking Everything Better‎, Plum, →ISBN, page 192:

     You could just use ordinary shop-bought kecap manis to marinade the meat, but making your own is easy, has a far more elegant fragrance and is, above all, such a great brag! Flavouring kecap manis is an intensely personal thing, so try this version now and next time cook the sauce down with crushed, split lemongrass and a shredded lime leaf.

3. Dealing with subjects about which one wishes (or people usually wish) to maintain privacy or discretion; not for public view; sensitive, intimate.

   personal reasons

   You can't read my diary—it is personal.

   That's a very personal question.

   I can't believe you went through my drawers and looked at all my personal things!

4. (euphemistic) Intended for sexual use.

   personal lubricant; personal massager

5. Pertaining to the external or bodily appearance; corporeal; bodily.

   personal charms

   • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

     The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. […] Can those harmless but refined fellow-diners be the selfish cads whose gluttony and personal appearance so raised your contemptuous wrath on your arrival?

6. Done in person; without an intermediary.

   a personal interview

   a personal meeting

   personal settings

   • 2011, Bob Nelson, Peter Economy, Consulting For Dummies:

     Although you miss the nonverbal cues that you pick up in a personal meeting, you can call far more clients in a day than you can meet with in person.

7. Relating to an individual, their character, conduct, motives, or private affairs, in an invidious and offensive manner

   personal reflections or remarks

8. (grammar) Denoting a person or people.

   a personal pronoun

9. Denoting ownership.

   one's personal vehicle, as opposed to a company vehicle

Not to be confused with personnel (“employees, staff”).

personal (plural personals)

1. (chiefly in the plural) An advertisement by which an individual attempts to meet others with similar interests.
2. One's own property or asset
   • 1748, Tobias Smollett (translator), Alain-René Lesage (original), The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane

     In addition to this, a coarse shirt quite new, a pair of my father's shoes quite old, and, what rejoiced me more than all the rest, a rouleau of twenty rials in a linen rag. Behold the sum total of my personals.

   • 1982 April 10, Roosevelt Williamson, “Prison Racism and Legal Slavery in America”, in Gay Community News, page 15:

     I've had my cell ransacked, savagely searched, and as a result, had my legal papers stolen and destroyed, allong with what little personal clothing and other personals I had.

• “personal”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• psoralen

Borrowed from Late Latin persōnālis.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [pər.suˈnal]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [pər.soˈnal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencian) [peɾ.soˈnal]

personal m or f (masculine and feminine plural personals)

1. personal

   Antonym: impersonal

• personalitzar
• personalment
• unipersonal

• impersonal
• persona
• personalitat

• “personal” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “personal”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “personal” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “personal” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Borrowed from English personal, from Middle English personal, personele, from Anglo-Norman personel, personal, personell, Old French personal, personel, from Late Latin persōnālis (“of a person, personly”).

• Hyphenation: per‧so‧nal
• IPA^(key): /peɾˈsonal/, [pɪɾ̪ˈs̪o.n̪ʌl̪]

personal

1. of or pertaining to a particular person; relating to, or affecting, an individual, or each of many individuals; peculiar or proper to private concerns; not public or general

For quotations using this term, see Citations:personal.

Borrowed from Late Latin persōnālis.

• IPA^(key): /pɛʁzoˈnaːl/
• Hyphenation: per‧so‧nal

• Audio

  (file)

personal (strong nominative masculine singular personaler, not comparable)

1. personal

• “personal” in Duden online
• “personal” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

From English personal, from Middle English personal, personele, from Anglo-Norman personel, personal, personell, Old French personal, personel, from Late Latin persōnālis (“of a person, personly”).

• IPA^(key): [pərˈsonal]
• Hyphenation: pêr‧so‧nal

personal

1. personal.

   Synonym: syahsiah

• “personal” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

personal (comparative plus personal, superlative le plus personal)

1. personal

personal (uncountable)

1. staff, personnel

personal m (feminine singular personala, masculine plural personai, feminine plural personales)

1. personal

Borrowed from Latin personalis or German personell or Italian personale or French personnel. By surface analysis, persoană +‎ -al.

• IPA^(key): /per.soˈnal/

• Audio

  (file)

personal m or n (feminine singular personală, masculine plural personali, feminine and neuter plural personale)

1. personal

personal n (plural personale)

1. staff, members of staff, personnel

Borrowed from Late Latin persōnālis.

• IPA^(key): /peɾsoˈnal/ [peɾ.soˈnal]

• Audio (Mexico):

  (file)

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: per‧so‧nal

personal m or f (masculine and feminine plural personales)

1. personal

   Antonym: impersonal

personal m (plural personales)

1. personnel, staff

   profesores y personal ― faculty and staff

   personal militar ― military personnel

   personal de seguridad ― security personnel

   personal sanitario ― health workers, healthcare workers, medical personnel

   personal médico ― medical staff, medical personnel; medical practitioners

personal m (uncountable)

1. (informal) folks, people, mob, crowd; the masses
   • 1993 April 23, Francisco Umbral, “Queremos saber”, in Antena 3:

     Yo he venido aquí a hablar de mi libro; y no a hablar de lo que opine el personal, que me da lo mismo, porque para eso tengo mi columna y mi opinión diaria.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• “personal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

• IPA^(key): [pɛʂʊnˈɑːl]

personal c

1. staff (employees of a business)

   Synonym: arbetskraft

• polarens, polernas

Each pronunciation has a different source:

• With ultimate stress, borrowed from Spanish personal.
• With antepenultimate stress, borrowed from English personal.

• (Spanish pronunciation) IPA^(key): /peɾsoˈnal/ [pɛɾ.soˈnal]
  • Rhymes: -al
• (English pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpeɾsonal/ [ˈpɛɾ.so.nɐl]
  • Rhymes: -eɾsonal
• Syllabification: per‧so‧nal

personál or pérsonál (Baybayin spelling ᜉᜒᜇ᜔ᜐᜓᜈᜎ᜔)

1. personal

• “personal”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018