personhunt

P3E1R1S1O1N1H4U1N1T1

noun

A manhunt.

Scrabble 15

Meanings

nounpersonhunt (plural personhunts)

plural personhunts

  1. rareA manhunt.

    The chief investigator on this massive personhunt is Sergeant Ogiv Fenlocki.

    1991, Peter R. Emshwiller, The Host, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 165
    3 more examples

    The Panther Sentinel is lauching^([sic]) a mass personhunt in an effort to recruit photographers and writers.

    1977 September 23, Panther Sentinel, 47th year, number 2, Salinas, Calif.: Hartnell College, page 3

    When I was in college one of my old high school girlfriends ritually slaughtered her infant child, and was consequently the subject of a thirteen-state personhunt.

    1986 March, Mark Brown, “Panegyric”, in Oh No! Noho!, number 10 / volume 2, number 4, Northampton, Mass., page 5, column 1

    No matter how out of sight the Londonmancers were, obscured by the matter of the city of which they were functions, Billy and Dane were the targets of the greatest personhunt in memory, and they could not risk bringing that sort of attention to the enjarred god.

    2010, China Miéville, Kraken: An Anatomy, London: Macmillan, →ISBN, page 349

Origin

From person + hunt, after manhunt. Coined as a gender-neutral alternative.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

personhunt. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/personhunt

MLA

“personhunt.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/personhunt. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “personhunt,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/personhunt.

Source: personhunt on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.