What term means "the sum of a person"?

Some will say that "the sum of a person" includes:

  • Actions.
  • Character, virtues.
  • Experiences, memories.
  • Abilities.

Is there a single term to mean this?


It is called personality.

The totality of qualities and traits, as of character or behavior, that are peculiar to a specific person.


(Psychology) psychol the sum total of all the behavioural and mental characteristics by means of which an individual is recognized as being unique


I see that you opened a bounty so seems like you want something beyond "personality". Then we have to go beyond linguistics and dig into philosophy and ontology also.

There is quiddity:

the essential nature or quality of something that makes it different and distinct from other things and establishes its identity

and also a close word, haecceity:

the essence that makes something the kind of thing it is and makes it different from any other

So there are a lot of similar words like these and there are thoughts of philosophers on these terms.

Wikipedia adds:

While terms such as haecceity, quiddity, noumenon and hypokeimenon all evoke the essence of a thing, they each have subtle differences and refer to different aspects of the thing's essence.

In conclusion, it all comes to the same thing, essence; but in my opinion, personality encompasses the essence. Essence is what you are born into but personality is what you become.


I would have to make a vote for the "Self".

The "Self" is the sum of a person's characteristics, traits, etc.

You refer to yourself, myself, himself, herself, etc. as a stand-in for people's existence.

It is the essence of being personified. (Although, if you weren't seeking a one-word answer, I'd vote for that phrase . . . It rolls off the tongue nicely.)

There is an excellent article on Wikipedia about the Philosophy of Self.

And one from About.com


My suggestion is nature. From the Collins Online dictionary, one of its primary meanings is

1.the fundamental qualities of a person or thing; identity or essential character

but it also has the meanings of tendencies of behaviour, disposition and temperament.


Consider the term gestalt. American Heritage defines it as

A physical, biological, psychological, or symbolic configuration or pattern of elements so unified as a whole that its properties cannot be derived from a simple summation of its parts.

Merriam-Webster adds

broadly : the general quality or character of something

It has been appropriated directly from German, meaning

shape, form, figure, configuration, appearance

As currently used, especially in psychology, the term conveys more than merely a collection recitation of all of the discrete elements that go into system (whether that be an individual or some other complex mechanism).

I think that the question carries an implication that the sum of a person is more that a simple compilation of elements.