human interest

See more synonyms for human interest on Thesaurus.com

noun

a quality of a story or report, as in a newspaper or on a newscast, that engages attention and sympathy by enabling one to identify readily with the people, problems, and situations described.

Related formshu·man-in·terest, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for human interest

pathos, schmaltz, sentimentalism, heartbreaker, tearjerker

Examples from the Web for human interest

Contemporary Examples of human interest

But human-interest stories dominated the pageant this year in an unprecedented way.
Autism, Breast Cancer, and the Changing Miss America Pageant
Kevin Fallon
January 13, 2013

Historical Examples of human interest

For the newspapers it was a rich source of human-interest stories.
Post-Impressions
Simeon Strunsky
He knew a human-interest story when he met it walking in the road.
Local Color
Irvin S. Cobb
There, suddenly, Graham saw one of the “human-interest bits” for which he was always hunting.
Buff: A Collie and other dog-stories
Albert Payson Terhune
In this field of reporting there are many opportunities for the human-interest story which will be taken up in a later chapter.
Newspaper Reporting and Correspondence
Grant Milnor Hyde
Graham was a good reporter, and he had a genius for human-interest yarns.
Buff: A Collie and other dog-stories
Albert Payson Terhune

British Dictionary definitions for human interest

human interest

noun

(in a newspaper story, news broadcasting, etc) reference to individuals and their emotions

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012