population

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin populatio (“a people, multitude”), as if a noun of action from Classical Latin populus. Doublet of poblacion.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌpɒp.jʊˈleɪ.ʃən/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌpɒp.juːˈleɪ.ʃən/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌpɑ.pjəˈleɪ.ʃən/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

  • Audio (New Jersey):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən
• Hyphenation: po‧pu‧la‧tion

Noun

population (plural populations)

1. The people living within a political or geographical boundary.

   The population of New Jersey will not stand for this!

2. (by extension) The people with a given characteristic.

   India has the third-largest population of English-speakers in the world.

3. A count of the number of residents within a political or geographical boundary such as a town, a nation or the world.

   The town’s population is only 243.

   population explosion;  population growth

   1. (cellular automata) The number of living cells in a pattern.
      • 1996 December 16, Dean Hickerson, “What is his name ?”, in comp.theory.cell-automata‎ (Usenet):

        This is one of several known "sawtooth" patterns, in which the population is unbounded but does not tend to infinity.

      • 2003 February 28, fiziwig, “Fast GOL alogrithm that doesn't examine neighbors.”, in comp.theory.cell-automata‎ (Usenet):

        Since unoccupied cells never send a message they never access their neighbors and so if the population of the arena is, say, 20% of the total area then 80% of time no neighbor cells need to be accessed at all leading 1/9th as many array accesses and computation speeds up to 9 times faster per generation.

      • 2008 May 31, Dave Greene, “Life: B37/S23 - A Chaotic Universe.”, in comp.theory.cell-automata‎ (Usenet):

        End population was 101,764 cells, but with some significant spikes and drops along the way.

4. (biology) A collection of organisms of a particular species, sharing a particular characteristic of interest, most often that of living in a given area.

   A seasonal migration annually changes the populations in two or more biotopes drastically, many twice in opposite senses.

   • 2006, Flora of North America, North of Mexico:

     Within and among populations of grindelias, some morphologic traits appear to vary more from plant to plant than in most genera of composites.

   • 2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:

     Plant breeding is always a numbers game. […] The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, […]. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better. These rarities may be new mutations, or they can be existing ones that are neutral—or are even selected against—in a wild population. A good example is mutations that disrupt seed dispersal, leaving the seeds on the heads long after they are ripe.

   • 2023 November 29, Peter Plisner, “The winds of change in Catesby Tunnel”, in RAIL, number 997, page 56:

     The tunnel was retired from operational service on September 3 1966. Since then, like many other tunnels, it has been left unused and unloved, apart from by the resident bat population.

5. (statistics) A group of units (persons, objects, or other items) enumerated in a census or from which a sample is drawn.
   • 1883, Francis Galton et al., “Final Report of the Anthropometric Committee”, in Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, page 269:

     […] it is possible it [the Anglo-Saxon race] might stand second to the Scandinavian countries [in average height] if a fair sample of their population were obtained.

6. (computing) The act of filling initially empty items in a collection.

   John clicked the Search button and waited for the population of the list to complete.

7. (prison) General population.
   • 1985 April 6, Jackie Beattie, “More Power To Us All”, in Gay Community News, page 4:

     I would like to say something about the place I am doing time at. When I was placed in population, I met another woman and we immediately became good friends.

Noun

population

1. (statistics) population

Etymology

Borrowing from Late Latin populātiōnem from Latin populus (“people”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɔ.py.la.sjɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

population f (plural populations)

1. population
2. the public

Further reading

• “population”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Noun

population (plural populationes)

1. population

Noun

population c

1. (biology) a population
2. (statistics) a population

References

• population in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• population in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• population in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)