individual

Etymology

PIE word *dwóh₁ From Medieval Latin indīviduālis, from Latin indīviduum (“an indivisible thing”), neuter of indīviduus (“indivisible, undivided”), from in + dīviduus (“divisible”), from dīvidō (“divide”).

noun

1. A person considered alone, rather than as belonging to a group of people.
   He is an unusual individual.
2. (law) A single physical human being as a legal subject, as opposed to a legal person such as a corporation.
   Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination […]. 1982, Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
3. An object, be it a thing or an agent, as contrasted to a class.
   It is typically held that chairs, trees, rocks, people and many of the so-called ‘everyday’ objects we encounter can be regarded as individuals. 2006, Steven French, “Identity and Individuality in Quantum Theory”, in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
   In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual. 2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3
4. (statistics) An element belonging to a population.

adj

1. Relating to a single person or thing as opposed to more than one.
   As we can't print them all together, the individual pages will have to be printed one by one.
   Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend. 2013-06-01, “End of the peer show”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 71
2. Intended for a single person as opposed to more than one person.
   individual personal pension; individual cream cakes
3. Not divisible without losing its identity.