HUMAN BEING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does human being mean? 

• HUMAN BEING (noun)
  The noun HUMAN BEING has 1 sense:

1. any living or extinct member of the family Hominidae characterized by superior intelligence, articulate speech, and erect carriage

  Familiarity information: HUMAN BEING used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HUMAN BEING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any living or extinct member of the family Hominidae characterized by superior intelligence, articulate speech, and erect carriage

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

homo; human; human being; man

Hypernyms ("human being" is a kind of...):

hominid (a primate of the family Hominidae)

Meronyms (parts of "human being"):

head of hair; mane (growth of hair covering the scalp of a human being)

face; human face (the front of the human head from the forehead to the chin and ear to ear)

hand; manus; mitt; paw (the (prehensile) extremity of the superior limb)

arm (a human limb; technically the part of the superior limb between the shoulder and the elbow but commonly used to refer to the whole superior limb)

foot; human foot; pes (the part of the leg of a human being below the ankle joint)

human head (the head of a human being)

loin; lumbus (either side of the backbone between the hipbone and the ribs in humans as well as quadrupeds)

body hair (short hair growing over a person's body)

anatomy; bod; build; chassis; figure; flesh; form; frame; human body; material body; physical body; physique; shape; soma (alternative names for the body of a human being)

Domain member category:

side (either the left or right half of a body)

body; organic structure (the entire physical structure of an organism (an animal, plant, or human being))

nutrition (the scientific study of food and drink (especially in humans))

schistosome dermatitis; swimmer's itch (a sensitization reaction to repeated invasion of the skin by cercariae of schistosomes)

hyperdactyly; polydactyly (birth defect characterized by the presence of more than the normal number of fingers or toes)

syndactylism; syndactyly (birth defect in which there is partial or total webbing connecting two or more fingers or toes)

prepubertal; prepubescent ((especially of human beings) at the age immediately before puberty; often marked by accelerated growth)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "human being"):

human beings; human race; humanity; humankind; humans; man; mankind; world (all of the living human inhabitants of the earth)

Homo erectus (extinct species of primitive hominid with upright stature but small brain)

Homo soloensis (extinct primitive hominid of late Pleistocene; Java; formerly Javanthropus)

Homo habilis (extinct species of upright East African hominid having some advanced humanlike characteristics)

Homo sapiens (the only surviving hominid; species to which modern man belongs; bipedal primate having language and ability to make and use complex tools; brain volume at least 1400 cc)

Homo sapiens neanderthalensis; Neandertal; Neandertal man; Neanderthal; Neanderthal man (extinct robust human of Middle Paleolithic in Europe and western Asia)

Homo rhodesiensis; Rhodesian man (a primitive hominid resembling Neanderthal man but living in Africa)

Holonyms ("human being" is a member of...):

genus Homo (type genus of the family Hominidae)

 Context examples 

I could not consent to the death of any human being, but certainly I should have thought such a creature unfit to remain in the society of men.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I had not imagined a human being could endure so much and still live and struggle on.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He must be nursed as you would nurse a human being, a sick child.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Now for the sinister cripple who lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. Clair.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Groups with similar restrictions or lack or ability to perform physical or mental activities in a manner or within the range considered normal for a human being.

(Disabled Population, NCI Thesaurus)

She would talk, a warm human being, in her quick, bright way, and, most important of all, she would catch glimpses of the real Martin Eden.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I never heard you speak ill of a human being in your life.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The range of possible values for any measurable characteristic, physical or mental, of a human being, analyzed, examined, investigated, experimented upon, or treated in the course of particular study.

(Intra Subject Variability, NCI Thesaurus)

His head was enormous, the largest I have ever seen upon a human being.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The lock yielded to her hand, and, luckily, with no sullen sound that could alarm a human being.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)