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HUMANITY
| 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 ("humanity" 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 "humanity"):
people ((plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The quality of being human
Example:
he feared the speedy decline of all manhood
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("humanity" is a kind of...):
quality (an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone)
Attribute:
human (having human form or attributes as opposed to those of animals or divine beings)
nonhuman (not human; not belonging to or produced by or appropriate to human beings)
Derivation:
human (having human form or attributes as opposed to those of animals or divine beings)
human (relating to a person)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The quality of being humane
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("humanity" is a kind of...):
humaneness (the quality of compassion or consideration for others (people or animals))
Derivation:
humanitarian (of or relating to or characteristic of humanitarianism)
Context examples:
Termites might not top the list of humanity's favorite insects, but new research suggests that their large dirt mounds are crucial to stopping deserts from spreading into semi-arid ecosystems.
(Dirt mounds made by termites in Africa, South America, Asia could prevent spread of deserts, NSF)
In answer to your letter, I can assure you that you must not conceive me to be wanting in those finer feelings which are the chief adornment of humanity.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
But someone did come and help her, though Jo did not recognize her good angels at once because they wore familiar shapes and used the simple spells best fitted to poor humanity.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
What could more plainly speak the gloomy workings of a mind not wholly dead to every sense of humanity, in its fearful review of past scenes of guilt?
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
The Milky Way, the brilliant river of stars that has dominated the night sky and human imaginations since time immemorial, is but a faded memory to one-third of humanity and 80 percent of Americans, according to a new global atlas of light pollution produced by Italian and American scientists.
(Milky Way now hidden from a third of humanity, NOAA)
While NASA will continue to look for other candidate asteroids during the next few years as the mission develops, astronomers are making progress to find suitable candidate asteroids for humanity's next destination into the solar system.
(NASA announces latest progress in hunt for asteroids, NASA)
They spoke to me with great humanity, and said, they were sure the captain would carry me gratis to Lisbon, whence I might return to my own country; that two of the seamen would go back to the ship, inform the captain of what they had seen, and receive his orders; in the mean time, unless I would give my solemn oath not to fly, they would secure me by force.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I long to go through the crowded streets of your mighty London, to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity, to share its life, its change, its death, and all that makes it what it is.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
How evidently was there a gross want of feeling and humanity where his own pleasure was concerned; and alas! how always known no principle to supply as a duty what the heart was deficient in!
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Amid the action and reaction of so dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be presented which may be striking and bizarre without being criminal.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
