human

American  

[hyoo-muhn, yoo-] / ˈhju mən, ˈju- /

adjective

1. 

   of, relating to, characteristic of, or having the nature of people.

   human frailty.

2. consisting of people.

   the human race.

3. of or relating to the social aspect of people.

   human affairs.

4. sympathetic; humane.

   a warmly human understanding.

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noun

• humans
  plural

1. a human being.

human British  

/ ˈhjuːmən /

adjective

1. of, characterizing, or relating to man and mankind

   human nature

2. consisting of people

   the human race

   a human chain

3. having the attributes of man as opposed to animals, divine beings, or machines

   human failings

4. 1. kind or considerate

   2. natural

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noun

1. a human being; person

human Scientific  

/ hyo̅o̅′mən /

1. A member of the species Homo sapiens; a human being.

2. A member of any of the extinct species of the genus Homo, such as Homo erectus or Homo habilis, that are considered ancestral or closely related to modern humans.

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human Idioms  

1. see milk of human kindness.

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Pronunciation

Pronunciations of words like human, huge, etc., with the initial deleted: , , while sometimes criticized, are heard from speakers at all social and educational levels, including professors, lawyers, and other public speakers.

Synonym Usage

Human, humane may refer to that which is, or should be, characteristic of human beings. In thus describing characteristics, human may refer to good and bad traits of a person alike ( human kindness; human weakness ). When emphasis is placed upon the latter, human is thought of as contrasted to divine: To err is human, to forgive divine. He was only human. Humane (the original spelling of human, and since 1700 restricted in meaning) takes into account only the nobler or gentler aspects of people and is often contrasted to their more ignoble or brutish aspect. A humane person is benevolent in treating fellow humans or helpless animals; the word once had also connotations of courtesy and refinement (hence, the application of humane to those branches of learning intended to refine the mind).

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• humanness
  noun
• half-human
  adjective
• human-like
  adjective
• humanlike
  adjective
• interhuman
  adjective
• overhuman
  adjective
• pseudohuman
  adjective
• quasi-human
  adjective
• transhuman
  adjective
• ultrahuman
  adjective
• unhuman
  adjective
• quasi-humanly
  adverb
• unhumanly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• humans
  plural

Etymology

Origin of human

First recorded in 1350–1400; earlier humain(e), humayn(e), Middle English, from Middle French humain, from Latin hūmānus, akin to homō “human being”; cf. Homo ( def. ); spelling human predominant from early 18th century

Explanation

Unlike a pickle or a chipmunk, a human is a person. You can identify a human by the two legs it stands on, its upright stature, its high intelligence, and its speech that you'll understand if you're one, too. Human was first recorded in the mid 13th century, and owes its existence to the Middle French humain “of or belonging to man.” That word, in turn, comes from the Latin humanus, thought to be a hybrid relative of homo, meaning “man,” and humus, meaning “earth.”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

human humans

Then we started talking about the parallel of programming and overcoming programming, and what makes you human, what doesn’t, that parallel came first.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026

Unlike traditional software, AI behaves more like a human worker: It takes action, makes decisions, sometimes even makes mistakes—all on the clock.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

Australia’s forests contain many forgotten experiments that could transform our understanding of how forests respond to human intervention.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 4, 2026

I listen to music because it’s flawed, raw and human, not just noise to fill my day.

From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026

After that, Clare had spent many days searching the woods for his missing companion, calling his name, even venturing so close to the human road that he could feel the unsettling whoosh of cars.

From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman

The sugar, found in most mammals but not in humans, prompts the antibodies that trigger an allergic reaction.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026

"It's being able to autonomously operate on the moon and build environments for humans to later habitat. And that's the real drive behind why this competition exists," he explained.

From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026

"That process eventually results in the death of neurons, and in humans is a key feature of Alzheimer's disease," Rey says.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 3, 2026

Both humans and AIs think in ways that are intuitive, subconscious—and difficult to describe with precision.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

“Books have been hard to come by lately. The humans are hoarding them. Or maybe they stopped using them, hard to tell. But I keep my eyes open.”

From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman

Related Words

• body
• character
• child
• creature
• individual
• life
• mortal