Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A member of the genus Homo and especially of the species H. sapiens.
- n. A person: the extraordinary humans who explored Antarctica.
- adj. Of, relating to, or characteristic of humans: the course of human events; the human race.
- adj. Having or showing those positive aspects of nature and character regarded as distinguishing humans from other animals: an act of human kindness.
- adj. Subject to or indicative of the weaknesses, imperfections, and fragility associated with humans: a mistake that shows he's only human; human frailty.
- adj. Having the form of human.
- adj. Made up of humans: formed a human bridge across the ice.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of man or of mankind; having the qualities or attributes of man: as, human life or nature; a human being; human shape.
- Pertaining to the sphere, nature, or faculties of man; relative or proper to mankind; mundane; secular; not divine: as, human knowledge, wisdom, or science; human affairs.
- In astrology, a sign of the zodiac corresponding to a constellation having for its figure a human being. The human signs are Gemini, Virgo, Aquarius, and the first half of Sagittarius. Synonyms Human, etc. See humane.
- n. A human being; a member of the family of mankind.
- n. Mars, Mars (said he), thou plague of men, smear'd with the dust and bloud
- In geology, noting the period of the later beds of the Post-tertiary or Quaternary series (the recent, alluvial, and post-glacial periods). The mammals are all, or nearly all, of still living species. The epithet human is not strictly applicable to this series, for it is quite certain that man coexisted with the fauna of the Pleistocene period.
Wiktionary
- adj. Of or belonging to the species Homo sapiens or its closest relatives.
- adj. comparable Having the nature or attributes of a human being.
- n. A human being, whether man, woman or child.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Belonging to man or mankind; having the qualities or attributes of a man; of or pertaining to man or to the race of man
- n. colloq. A human being.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having human form or attributes as opposed to those of animals or divine beings
- adj. relating to a person
- adj. characteristic of humanity
- n. any living or extinct member of the family Hominidae characterized by superior intelligence, articulate speech, and erect carriage
Etymologies
- From Middle French humain, from Latin hūmānus ("of or belonging to a man, human, humane"), from homo ("man, human"). Spelling human has been predominant since the early 18th century. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English humain, from Old French, from Latin hūmānus; see dhghem- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Labeld them as “human weeds” “reckless breeders” “spawning..human beings who never should have beenborn”.”
“Labeld them as “human weeds” “reckless breeders” “spawning..human beings who never should have been born”.”
“(The passage from Diogenes quoted in the previous section, according to which Pyrrho held “that human beings do everything by convention and habit” is not necessarily in conflict with this; by ˜human beings™ Pyrrho might have meant ordinary human beings, among whom he would not have included himself.)”
“Oh wait, he didn't mean that the broad sweeping claims are that human CO2 causes global warming and or that the ulterior motives are political power, prestige and funding, which can only be attached to *human* caused warming.”
“Once again see my much earlier comments re: Bicentennial man, if memory serves about why human and human+ AIs are less useful than they might seem.”
“How human, how lusciously _human_!" he exclaimed.”
“It is from this point of observation that our humour is suddenly made aware of the startling absurdity of human institution; and not only of _human_ institution; for it is made aware also of the absurdity of the whole fantastic scheme of this portentous universe.”
“If people do anything that is generally called "immoral," they will excuse themselves on the grounds of human nature; they will say: "After all, _human nature being what it is_, you must expect this, that and the other kind of licence and immorality"; and to say that morality, real morality, can only be based on the realities of human nature will therefore sound to many of you the wildest kind of paradox.”
“Women, difficult as some people find it to believe, are human beings; and because women are so, they want work, and interest, and love -- both given and received -- and children, and, in short, the satisfaction of every _human_ need.”
“NATURAL phenomenon of human life brings us to the scientifical source of ethics and I prove that the so-called “highest ideals of humanity” have nothing of “sentimentalism” or of the “_super_natural” in them, but are exclusively the _fulfilment_ of the _natural laws_ for the _human class of life_.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘human’.
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SCIE - EU nomenclature
All the scientific words found in the official EU nomenclature. For the screening I used Vocabgrabber of the Visual Thesaurus.
silicon, silica, shrimp, shelve, shallot, serine, seedling, septic, secretin, seaweed, screening, Scomber and 1171 more...
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EU Buzz - ALL words and expressions
A combined list of
1. EU Buzz - single words
2. EU Buzz - collocations
3. EU Buzz - the 100 most active
collocation constituentsabsorption capacity, absorption rate, acceding country, accession candidate, accession countries, accession country, accession criteria, accession cycle, accession negotia..., accession partner..., accession priorities, accession treaty and 2650 more...
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Public List: Two by Fives
This is an experiment in public lists--something I've been thinking about for some time. The goal is to create a collection of short, powerful, evocative words.
This is an open list. A...icy, howl, hymn, thorn, fire, vile, mist, blunt, scum, dark, shot, gleam and 221 more...
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Headlines & Newsmakers
frugality, environment, extinction, bible, killer, jazz, cloning, dead, god, moon, global warming, bailout and 340 more...
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Orwellian Purism
Words and phrases George Orwell criticizes in his essay 'Politics and the English Language'.
ring the changes on, take up the cudge..., toe the line, ride roughshod over, stand shoulder to..., play into the han..., no axe to grind, grist to the mill, fishing in troubl..., on the order of t..., Achilles’ heel, swan song and 162 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
abaca, abdominal, abrasive, absorbent, absorber, accelerator, accessory, account book, accumulator, acebutolol, acetaldehyde, acetamide and 4515 more...
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Dungeons and Dragons
Would you like to join our party? We just started a new campaign.
For more general lists about role-playing games, see brandelion's RPG and lampbane's Tales of the Dread Gazebo.dungeons and dragons, d&d, elf, orc, halfling, drow, giant, troll, kobold, rpg, d20, human and 100 more...
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POL - campaign tokenisms
Positive words and vague promises. THE words and expressions to use when you want to win over the masses or just don't know what to say.
"CAPITAL" stands for the administrative capital...21st century, a high level of a..., a long way, a long way to go, a lot to be done, a lot to do, achievement, action, action plan, action team, actual implementa..., advantage and 751 more...
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Words in which "u" is pronounced "yu"
cute, uniform, puny, municipal, butte, fume, perfume, puke, cucumber, huge, demure, cube and 95 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
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EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
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2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
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tHe Best Animals Ever
giraffe, elepant, cattle, water buffalo, langur monkey, baboon, lion, antelope, cheetah, tapeworm, kangaroo, bullfrog and 102 more...
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Animals
pig, camel, ant, ape, donkey, badger, bat, beaver, bee, cat, dog, cow and 82 more...
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Categories
How to divide everything
body, mind, soul, earth, water, air, solar system, interstellar, galactic, intergalactic, cosmic, heaven and 3 more...
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EN - overused words
approach, project, expertise, agenda, benchmarking, sustainable, competence, mainstreaming, streamlining, roadmap, action, evaluation and 26 more...
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Unneutered
These politically incorrect words for people contain the element 'man', 'son', or 'boy'.
parson, person, layman, businessman, clergyman, chairman, cameraman, craftsman, craftsmanship, fireman, fisherman, gunman and 50 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for human.
pterodactyl For some reason, I associate the "yuman" pronunciation with Californians -- but this map does not support me in this. Apr 10, 2008
oroboros If you're a human you only have two things: your life, and your attention. --Jan Cox Apr 20, 2007