opulation,

A _community_ is in general terms the aggregate of persons inhabiting
any territory in common and viewed as having common interests; a
_commonwealth_ is such a body of persons having a common government,
especially a republican government; as, the _commonwealth_ of
Massachusetts. A _community_ may be very small; a _commonwealth_ is
ordinarily of considerable extent. A _people_ is the aggregate of any
public _community_, either in distinction from their rulers or as
including them; a _race_ is a division of mankind in the line of origin
and ancestry; the _people_ of the United States includes members of
almost every _race_. The use of _people_ as signifying persons
collectively, as in the statement "The hall was full of _people_," has
been severely criticized, but is old and accepted English, and may fitly
be classed as idiomatic, and often better than _persons_, by reason of
its collectivism. As Dean Alford suggests, it would make a strange
transformation of the old hymn "All _people_ that on earth do dwell" to
sing "All _persons_ that on earth do dwell." A _state_ is an organized
political _community_ considered in its corporate capacity as "a body
politic and corporate;" as, a legislative act is the act of the _state_;
every citizen is entitled to the protection of the _state_. A _nation_
is an organized political _community_ considered with reference to the
persons composing it as having certain definite boundaries, a definite
number of citizens, etc. The members of a _people_ are referred to as
persons or individuals; the individual members of a _state_ or _nation_
are called citizens or subjects. The _population_ of a country is simply
the aggregate of persons residing within its borders, without reference
to _race_, organization, or allegiance; unnaturalized residents form
part of the _population_, but not of the _nation_, possessing none of
the rights and being subject to none of the duties of citizens. In
American usage _State_ signifies one _commonwealth_ of the federal union
known as the United _States_. _Tribe_ is now almost wholly applied to
rude _peoples_ with very imperfect political organization; as, the
Indian _tribes_; nomadic _tribes_. Compare MOB.

* * * * *

PERCEIVE.

Synonyms:

apprehend, comprehend, conceive, understand.

We _perceive_ what is presented through the senses. We _apprehend_ what
is presented to the mind, whether through the sens