What does "persona" mean?

1. (public image) the personality or image that you show to other people, which is often different from your private self. 2. (performance character) a character that an actor or performer creates for the public. 3. (marketing/design profile) a description of a typical customer used by companies to help them design products.

persona — meaning, definition & examples

Word

01public image

B2 · Upper Intermediate Countable noun

n. the personality or image that you show to other people, which is often different from your private self.

n. the social facade or public face an individual presents to the world, often contrasting with their inner character.

“In public, the politician maintained a friendly persona, but he was actually quite shy.”

“The CEO carefully cultivated a persona of approachable humility, despite her reputation for being a ruthless negotiator behind closed doors.”

Synonyms

image facade front

Antonyms

true self

02performance character

C1 · Advanced Countable noun Theater Formal

n. a character that an actor or performer creates for the public.

n. a fictional or semi-fictional character adopted by a performer or writer.

“The singer's stage persona is much more aggressive than her real personality.”

“The comedian's stage persona was so convincing that fans were often surprised by his quiet, academic nature in real life.”

Synonyms

character alter ego role

03marketing/design profile

C1 · Advanced Countable noun Computing Technical · Academic

n. a description of a typical customer used by companies to help them design products.

n. a representative profile of a target user or customer type, used to guide product development and marketing strategy.

“The design team created a persona named 'Sarah' to represent their average user.”

“By developing detailed user personas, the software engineers were able to anticipate the specific technical challenges a novice user might encounter.”

Synonyms

profile archetype

“According to her own account, the persona of Rollerena was born on the evening of September 16, 1972, when a young Kentucky-born Vietnam War veteran first put on a gown and skates.”

JSTOR Daily 24 Jun 2026

“For those who do complete the survey, our project uses four comfort personas, or "sparks": Traditional Thinker, Puddle Jumper, Curious Explorer and Deep Diver.”

Phys.org 18 Aug 2026

Borrowed from Latin persōna (“mask; character”), of uncertain origin. Suggested to be from Etruscan 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu, “mask; masked individual; actor”), which could be a loan from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον (prósōpon, “face; appearance; mask used in ancient theatre to denote a character or, more generally, a social role”). Doublet of person and parson.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

VERB

NOUN

persona(C1)

ADJECTIVE