Everyman

[ ev-ree-man ]

noun

1. (italics) a 15th-century English morality play.
2. (usually lowercase) an ordinary person; the typical or average person.

pronoun

1. everybody; everyone.

Everyman

/ ˈɛvrɪˌmæn /

noun

1. a medieval English morality play in which the central figure represents mankind, whose earthly destiny is dramatized from the Christian viewpoint
2. often not capital the ordinary person; common man

Word History and Origins

Origin of Everyman¹

every + man

Example Sentences

In a country where indebtedness has been skyrocketing — one recent estimate has the nation’s total household debt now exceeding its GDP — Gi-hun, a sad-sack divorcé partly supported by his elderly mother, is an Everyman.

From Washington Post

Christie may have his faults, but he oozes the everyman persona.

From The Daily Beast

You have to be an everyman and chameleon, so that every bit of you is involved in the end.

From The Daily Beast

Ex-sexy elf Orlando Bloom, without even putting on his Legolas weave, turns Justin Bieber-punching everyman.

From The Daily Beast

At the end of the day, Bloom emerges as an unlikely hero: former sexy elf turned Justin Bieber-punching everyman.

From The Daily Beast

Still, the tradition of a hero with a younger, or everyman, acolyte stretches back to antiquity.

From The Daily Beast

We trust that Everyman will do his duty and bring in a large sum for this admirable object.

From Project Gutenberg

He never manages the classic, I mean as Flaubert gives us in each main character: Everyman.

From Project Gutenberg

He is everyman, like Hamlet, if only we had the wit to recognize ourselves in him.

From Project Gutenberg

The general structure of Everyman and some of its fellows, heightened and made more dramatic, gave us Marlowe's Faustus.

From Project Gutenberg

Everyman, the oftenest revived and best known of them, if not the best, is very typical of the class.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• anybody
• everybody
• people