mankind
Americannoun
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the human race; human beings collectively without reference to gender; humankind.
It is no longer possible, if it ever was, for a single human brain to hold all of mankind's scientific knowledge.
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men, as distinguished from women.
Some still maintain that mankind is stronger, braver, smarter than womankind, but many others consider that absolute nonsense.
noun
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human beings collectively; humanity
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men collectively, as opposed to womankind
Usage
Nowadays many people object to the use of mankind to refer to all human beings and use the term humankind instead
Gender
Is man gender-neutral? See man.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of mankind
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English; man ( def. ) + kind 2 ( def. )
Explanation
Mankind is every single human being — all of us. The discovery of cures for diseases benefits all of mankind, while global warming is not so kind to mankind. The entire human species can be referred to in one simple word with mankind. Pollution is something that harms mankind across the globe, and disasters like war and famine have affected mankind all through our history. If you think your dad's brownies are the very best in the entire world, you could exaggerate a little and say, "They're the most delicious thing known to mankind." In its Old English origin, man is gender-neutral, meaning simply "person."
Vocabulary lists containing mankind
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.
Mankind advances by tossing aside the trammels of yesteryear, be they religious or monetary.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 12, 2025
That's also been placed in the Memory of Mankind repository, another vault safeguarding historic documents, hidden in a salt mine in Austria.
From BBC • May 8, 2025
For my $9.99, this service is an indispensable streamer these days, the gateway not just to Severance but to Slow Horses, For All Mankind, and a handful of others.
From Slate • Jan. 16, 2025
Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka once said: “The theme of the film, from the beginning, was the terror of the bomb. Mankind has created the bomb, and now nature was going to take revenge on mankind.”
From Seattle Times • Feb. 15, 2024
Mankind reaching out to Mars to send people to another planet for the very first time and expand the horizons of humanity blah, blah, blah.
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
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.
