humanistic
adjective
Simple meaning
Related to the period of European history at the close of the Middle Ages and the rise of the modern world.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
hyoomuhnistikSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
hjuməˈnɪstɪk
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
Of or pertaining to a philosophy asserting human dignity and man's capacity for fulfillment through reason and scientific method and often rejecting religion
“The humanist belief in continuous emergent evolution"- Wendell Thomas.”
Of or pertaining to Renaissance humanism
Pertaining to or concerned with the humanities
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: Of or pertaining to a philosophy asserting human dignity and man's capacity for fulfillment through reason and scientific method and often rejecting religion
Used this way, humanistic is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
- Science
- Academic writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Relating to humanism or the humanities.
Pertaining to or concerned with the humanities.
Synonym of humanist ("relating to humanism").
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Studies intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills (rather than occupational or professional skills).
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- secularadjective
- judaismnoun
- buddhismnoun
- sociologynoun
- psychotherapynoun
- anthropologynoun
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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.