Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Characterized by kindness, mercy, or compassion: a humane judge.
- adj. Marked by an emphasis on humanistic values and concerns: a humane education.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of or pertaining to man; human. See human, a.
- Profane; secular. See human, a., 2.
- Having the feelings and inclinations proper to man; having tenderness, compassion, and a disposition to treat other human beings and the lower animals with kindness; kind; benevolent.
- Tending to humanize or refine: applied to the elegant or polite branches of literature, especially philology, rhetoric, poetry, and the study of the ancient classics. See humanity, 5.
- Synonyms Humane, Merciful; tender, tender-hearted, kind-hearted, compassionate, sympathetic. Humane differs from the ordinary use of merciful in that it expresses active endeavors to find and relieve suffering, and especially to prevent it, while merciful expresses the disposition to spare one the suffering which might be inflicted. The good Samaritan was humane; Shylock should have been merciful; the Royal Humane Society; a merciful judge.
Wiktionary
- adj. Having or showing concern for the pain or suffering of another; compassionate.
- adj. Pertaining to branches of learning concerned with human affairs or the humanities, especially classical literature or rhetoric.
- adj. Obsolete spelling of human.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. obsolete Pertaining to man; human.
- adj. Having the feelings and inclinations creditable to man; having a disposition to treat other human beings or animals with kindness; kind; benevolent.
- adj. Humanizing; exalting; tending to refine.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. marked or motivated by concern with the alleviation of suffering
- adj. showing evidence of moral and intellectual advancement
- adj. pertaining to or concerned with the humanities
Etymologies
- Variant form of human, now preserved in specialized senses. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English humain, human; see human. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Lyman focuses on the term humane meat, asking if killing can be humane and asserting that the only reason we eat meat is because we have an addiction to fat.”
“On the campaign trail, latest GOP frontrunner Newt Gingrich came under fire for using the word "humane" in a debate answer about illegal immigration and suggesting we should adopt a policy to avoid tearing apart families.”
“Chances are, if you get into a conversation about the conditions in which animals are raised for food in the United States, you will hear the word "humane" sooner or later.”
The Huffington Post: Nil Zacharias: Humane Meat Is the Solution to What, Again?
“In Phoenix, Arizona, throngs of protesters are demanding what they call humane immigration reform.”
“It took the hammer blows of post-war Europe, seeing the tragedy up close and vividly that transformed me from a Utopian passivist to what I call a humane realist.”
“That was a terrible misfortune to befall a poor dead girl so generally respected, and in wide demand as a seamstress; though, even then, the worst might have been averted had not my sister-in-law been of what they call a humane disposition and foolishly attached to the cat.”
“Mr. Gingrich proposes what he calls a "humane" approach, allowing many of the 11 million people who immigrated illegally to the United States to remain.”
“But it is a lesson that is still unlearned - or rather, it is casually denied by people who recommend what they call humane social policies.”
“The mass-man is one who has neither the force of intellect to apprehend the principles issuing in what we know as the humane life, nor the force of character to adhere to those principles steadily and strictly as laws of conduct; and because such people make up the great and overwhelming majority of mankind, they are called collectively the masses.”
“Apparently the Administration's definition of "humane" is so far below the minimum standards that civilized nations have set that it must excuse itself even from those minimum standards.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘humane’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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2nd part
prelude, ample, escalate, prototype, accession, acquisition, archives, zealot, indict, verdict, intimidating, timid and 454 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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Character Traits
This is a list of adjectives used by writers to help develop characters.
guileful, obsessed, brilliant, bright, naive, streetwise, streetsmart, ruthless, cruel, foolish, obsessive, introspective and 19 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Schwa-Free
Words of more than one syllable that include no schwas in their pronunciation.
(Note for pedants: some of these words have more than one pronunciation. As long as just one of the possi...decoy, ballet, survey, sashay, argon, lilac, sumac, café, princess, dildo, wordy, flighty and 30 more...
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What Do You Mean ?
U Gotta Know These.......
falter, ruddy, flounder, pallid, fumble, founder, labile, titular, tacit, pragmatic, fatalism, jaded and 112 more...
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Wordplay
reticent, slammerkin, moonstruck, zephyr, gallivant, hullabaloo, pandemonium, equestrian, wallflower, martyr, threadbare, treacherous and 180 more...
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Friday
friday - test
transcend, bog-standard, broiler, rear, flap, peck, perch, humane, free-range, bale, germ, prep and 11 more...
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harrisj's Words
skeumorph, liminal, enervated, essential, moiety, motley, haphazard, bone-picker, resolute, petard, jigsaw, schism and 117 more...
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From Book - SAT & College Dictionary ...
ebb, exotic, immure, abeyance, panegyric, debonair, protege, dissipate, frantic, penitent, abject, edify and 871 more...
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SAT Words Appearing More Than Once on...
A list of 166 words that have appeared more than once on official SAT exams. Based on Gruber's SAT Word Master list.
abolish, abridge, abstemious, accent, accented, accolade, acquiesce, affirmation, amass, ambivalence, ambivalent, ambulatory and 154 more...
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bobodod's Words
cultie, screwery, gauge, wanker, truthiness, harangue, mediocre, ragamuffin, elysian, spoonerism, loquacious, apostle and 240 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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Haley
brave, generous, ingenious, heroic, sympathetic, tender, bold, kind, clever, daring, gentle, mellow and 18 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for humane.
bilby "There are certain things you can truly count on when you see that Nature’s Acres label at your local supermarket. One, our products are USDA certified organic. Two, every cut of Nature’s Acres beef is minimally processed and contains absolutely no artificial hormones or antibiotics—ever! Three, all of our cows were grasped by the nostrils using cast iron nose tongs and had their heads violently wrenched backward so we could slash right through their carotid artery and windpipe with an 18-inch blade. And four, you’ll experience a rich beef taste you just can’t beat. Mmm, mmm!
And you can take heart knowing that Nature’s Acres has earned the “Animal Welfare Approved” and “Certified Humane” seals of approval from independent inspectors."
- Hank T. Norman, We Raise All Our Beef Humanely On Open Pasture And Then We Hang Them Upside Down And Slash Their Throats, The Onion, 22 Jan 2013. Jan 24, 2013