Other forms: individuals
Individual means belonging to one single person or thing rather than a group. Individual portions, individual rights, each individual case.
As a noun it is often a cold way of saying person — an unknown individual — which is why police and officials reach for it. The Latin means undivided: an individual is the thing that cannot be split further and still be itself. Note individually.
1adjectiveindividualBelonging to one single person or thing.
“The teacher gives each child individual attention during reading time.”
2nounsingleA single person.
“Each individual in the team has a different skill to offer.”
individual is a single one.
Latin individuus means indivisible, from in-, not, plus dividere, to divide.
Proto-Indo-European
*dwóh₁
Latin
indīviduum — an indivisible thing
Medieval Latin
indīviduālis
English, today
individual
Built from
From Medieval Latin indīviduālis, from Latin indīviduum (“an indivisible thing”), neuter of indīviduus (“indivisible, undivided”), from in + dīviduus (“divisible”), from dīvidō (“divide”). Displaced native Old English hād (“person, individual”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA