humid
Americanadjective
adjective
Usage
What does humid mean? Humid is used to describe air that is full of water vapor. Humid is most commonly applied to weather or the general climate of a place, especially when the temperature is hot. The noun form of humid is humidity. Example: Summertime in Florida is almost unbearably humid.
Synonym Usage
See damp.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of humid
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Latin (h)ūmidus, equivalent to (h)ūm(ēre) “to be moist” + -idus -id 4
Explanation
When there is a lot of moisture in the air, it is humid out. The air in a rain forest is humid, the air in a desert is dry. People like to say that it's not the heat that bothers them, it's the humidity. They say this because when it is humid, or when there is a lot of water in the air, the heat feels hotter. It also makes wavy hair frizzy and straight hair limp. Air that is cold and moist is called damp, so when people talk about humid air, think tropical, as that's usually how the word is meant.
Vocabulary lists containing humid
The Sweltering Words of Summer
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Seedfolks
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Mexico - Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Humid heat is the most dangerous kind of heat because it limits how much sweat can cool the body.
From The Wall Street Journal • Aug. 14, 2025
A study by the research team around Potsdam geoscientist Prof. Dr. Martin H. Trauth confirms this for the end of the African Humid Period and the transition to the pronounced aridity that is typical today.
From Science Daily • May 7, 2024
Humid conditions in southern Nice frazzled the thinking and Ford claimed mitigating circumstances: Slippery hands.
From Washington Times • Sep. 17, 2023
Humid monsoonal weather conditions brought brief but heavy rain, especially on the south end of the fire, and kept its spread to a minimum, fire officials said.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 1, 2023
Humid yellow mist floated past the street lamps, and seemed to have gathered in a moving reef around the little runabout car which was standing outside the house, its motor chattering tremulously.
From Dope by Rohmer, Sax
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
