humane
adjective
Simple meaning
Marked or motivated by concern with the alleviation of suffering.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
hyoomaynSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
hjuˈmeɪn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Marked or motivated by concern with the alleviation of suffering
Having or showing concern for the pain or suffering of another; compassionate.
Pertaining to branches of learning concerned with human affairs or the humanities, especially classical literature or rhetoric.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Marked or motivated by concern with the alleviation of suffering
Used this way, humane is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It sounds natural in ordinary conversation and in expressive writing alike.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use humane
- “The shelter provides humane care for all the animals rescued.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Studies intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills (rather than occupational or professional skills).
The quality of being humane.
The doctrine that people's duty is to promote human welfare.
An automaton that resembles a human being.
Related to Marked or motivated by concern with the alleviation of suffering.
In a way that relates to characteristic of humanity.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An honorary degree in letters.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Antonyms
Sense: marked
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.