In English the word commonly refers to the norse people of the time as a whole.

“ In modern English and other vernaculars, the term also commonly includes the inhabitants of Norse home communities during this period.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikings

That's modern English though, when the word "Viking" was re-introduced as part of the general romantic revival and where much of the popular ideas of Vikings - horned helmets, dragon ships, beserkers etc - were either invented or at least highly exaggerated by modern writers and artists.

The original Old English term "þa Deniscan" (the Danes) was pretty clearly a people group as well, and they established colonies in England and France. That there is a narrower sense of "pirate" doesn't prove that there isn't a broader ethnogroup sense.

Vikings were very much a culture group. The Old English called them "The Danes" in general (which was a generic name for Scandanavian peoples, not specifically people from Denmark as we define it today), and they settled much of England (the Danelaw) and Normandy (literally "(land of the) North Men").