inhumane
Americanadjective
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Etymology
Origin of inhumane
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Explanation
The adjective inhumane means cruel and heartless. Use it to describe terrible things like your neighbor's inhumane treatment of his hound dogs, which he leaves tied up in the yard in all kinds of weather. Whenever someone acts without considering the discomfort or pain of another person or animal, you can describe their actions as inhumane. A cruel government that keeps prisoners in terrible conditions is inhumane, and the treatment of farm animals is in some cases revealed to be inhumane by investigators. The word inhumane was originally a synonym of inhuman, literally "not human," but it fell out of use and then was revived in the 1820s to mean the opposite of humane.
Vocabulary lists containing inhumane
"Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)
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Negative Words to Describe a Person
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Surviving Hitler
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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.
Is it a sight of pure, inhumane evil, or do their blank expressions merely reflect a corruption that can still be reversed?
From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2026
Humanitarian groups have harshly criticized the transfers, saying they put migrants at risk of incarceration and inhumane treatment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
“That was so outrageous and inhumane and a gut punch to the families,” she says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
The paper says the UN has labelled IPPs inhumane.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
They slept in separate bedrooms because my uncle's snoring was so loud it was inhumane.
From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
