POPULATION

population

(noun) the act of populating (causing to live in a place); “he deplored the population of colonies with convicted criminals”

population, universe

(noun) (statistics) the entire aggregation of items from which samples can be drawn; “it is an estimate of the mean of the population”

population

(noun) a group of organisms of the same species inhabiting a given area; “they hired hunters to keep down the deer population”

population

(noun) the people who inhabit a territory or state; “the population seemed to be well fed and clothed”

population

(noun) the number of inhabitants (either the total number or the number of a particular race or class) in a given place (country or city etc.); “people come and go, but the population of this town has remained approximately constant for the past decade”; “the African-American population of Salt Lake City has been increasing”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

population (plural populations)

The people living within a political or geographical boundary.

(by extension) The people with a given characteristic.

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

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

(statistics) A group of units (persons, objects, or other items) enumerated in a census or from which a sample is drawn.

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

Source: Wiktionary

Pop`u*la"tion, n. Etym: [L. populatio: cf. F. population.]

1. The act or process of populating; multiplication of inhabitants.

2. The whole number of people, or inhabitants, in a country, or portion of a country; as, a population of ten millions.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition