| Library / English Dictionary |
HUMAN BEING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Any living or extinct member of the family Hominidae characterized by superior intelligence, articulate speech, and erect carriage
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("human being" is a kind of...):
hominid (a primate of the family Hominidae)
Meronyms (parts of "human being"):
face; human face (the front of the human head from the forehead to the chin and ear to ear)
hand; manus; mitt; paw (the (prehensile) extremity of the superior limb)
arm (a human limb; technically the part of the superior limb between the shoulder and the elbow but commonly used to refer to the whole superior limb)
foot; human foot; pes (the part of the leg of a human being below the ankle joint)
human head (the head of a human being)
head of hair; mane (growth of hair covering the scalp of a human being)
body hair (short hair growing over a person's body)
anatomy; bod; build; chassis; figure; flesh; form; frame; human body; material body; physical body; physique; shape; soma (alternative names for the body of a human being)
loin; lumbus (either side of the backbone between the hipbone and the ribs in humans as well as quadrupeds)
Domain member category:
side (either the left or right half of a body)
body; organic structure (the entire physical structure of an organism (an animal, plant, or human being))
nutrition (the scientific study of food and drink (especially in humans))
schistosome dermatitis; swimmer's itch (a sensitization reaction to repeated invasion of the skin by cercariae of schistosomes)
hyperdactyly; polydactyly (birth defect characterized by the presence of more than the normal number of fingers or toes)
syndactylism; syndactyly (birth defect in which there is partial or total webbing connecting two or more fingers or toes)
prepubertal; prepubescent ((especially of human beings) at the age immediately before puberty; often marked by accelerated growth)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "human being"):
human beings; human race; humanity; humankind; humans; man; mankind; world (all of the living human inhabitants of the earth)
Homo erectus (extinct species of primitive hominid with upright stature but small brain)
Homo soloensis (extinct primitive hominid of late Pleistocene; Java; formerly Javanthropus)
Homo habilis (extinct species of upright East African hominid having some advanced humanlike characteristics)
Homo sapiens (the only surviving hominid; species to which modern man belongs; bipedal primate having language and ability to make and use complex tools; brain volume at least 1400 cc)
Homo sapiens neanderthalensis; Neandertal; Neandertal man; Neanderthal; Neanderthal man (extinct robust human of Middle Paleolithic in Europe and western Asia)
Homo rhodesiensis; Rhodesian man (a primitive hominid resembling Neanderthal man but living in Africa)
Holonyms ("human being" is a member of...):
genus Homo (type genus of the family Hominidae)
Context examples:
The man, the human being, broke the spell at once.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
It was impossible to banish the letter from her thoughts, and she could not relieve herself by speaking of it to any human being.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
It was she whom I had heard pecking at a piece of bark; it was she, keeping better watch than any human being, who thus announced my arrival with her wearisome refrain.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
“Upon my honour,” said he very seriously, “it does not. It is not in the smallest degree connected with any human being of the name of Knightley.”
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
‘He was more like a malignant and cunning ape than a human being,’ said she, ‘and he always was, ever since he was a young man.’
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“Do you mean to say, child, that any human being has gone into a Christian church, and got herself named Peggotty?” “It's her surname,” said my mother, faintly.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He could not conceive how this came to pass, for he never saw a human being in his house, and no one could have concealed himself in it.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
The scientist explained that 30 days in the life of an animal are equivalent to two to four years in the life of a human being.
(Zika virus found to harm adults’ memory and motor system, Agência Brasil/EBC)
I was convinced that Mortimer Tregennis was the murderer; that for the sake of money, and with the idea, perhaps, that if the other members of his family were all insane he would be the sole guardian of their joint property, he had used the devil’s-foot powder upon them, driven two of them out of their senses, and killed his sister Brenda, the one human being whom I have ever loved or who has ever loved me.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
EXAMPLE(S): animal, human being
(Organism, NCI Thesaurus/BRIDG)
