| Library / English Dictionary |
HUMAN BEINGS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
All of the living human inhabitants of the earth
Example:
she always used 'humankind' because 'mankind' seemed to slight the women
Synonyms:
human beings; human race; humanity; humankind; humans; man; mankind; world
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("human beings" is a kind of...):
group; grouping (any number of entities (members) considered as a unit)
homo; human; human being; man (any living or extinct member of the family Hominidae characterized by superior intelligence, articulate speech, and erect carriage)
Meronyms (members of "human beings"):
people ((plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively)
Context examples:
Witches have red eyes, and cannot see far, but they have a keen scent like the beasts, and are aware when human beings draw near.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Only one of those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have four million human beings all jostling each other within the space of a few square miles.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The field devoted to applying the techniques of biochemistry, cellular biology, biophysics, and molecular biology to addressing issues related to human beings and the environment.
(Biotechnology, NCI Thesaurus)
Human beings in general.
(People, NCI Thesaurus)
The annual survey, which has been conducted for 11 years, aims to find why bee colonies are suffering, a problem that can have big consequences for human beings, given that honey bees pollinate $15 billion worth of U.S. agriculture annually.
(Study Finds Mixed News About Bee Populations, VOA)
The sowing and harvesting of water is the managed process by which human beings intentionally channel water to seep via the subsoil (sowing) so that it can be collected (harvested) at some point in the future.
(Researchers demonstrate that Sierra Nevada is home to the oldest underground water recharge system in Europe, University of Granada)
It was dreadful, but she would have done it if the flock of draggle-tailed sparrows on the hedge had been human beings, for she was very far gone indeed, and quite regardless of everything but her own happiness.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Fortunately for those who pay their court through such foibles, a fond mother, though, in pursuit of praise for her children, the most rapacious of human beings, is likewise the most credulous; her demands are exorbitant; but she will swallow any thing; and the excessive affection and endurance of the Miss Steeles towards her offspring were viewed therefore by Lady Middleton without the smallest surprise or distrust.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
In other places human beings were seldom seen, and I generally subsisted on the wild animals that crossed my path.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
