HUMANE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does humane mean? 

• HUMANE (adjective)
  The adjective HUMANE has 3 senses:

1. pertaining to or concerned with the humanities

2. marked or motivated by concern with the alleviation of suffering

3. showing evidence of moral and intellectual advancement

  Familiarity information: HUMANE used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HUMANE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Pertaining to or concerned with the humanities

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Synonyms:

humane; humanist; humanistic

Context example:

a humane education

Pertainym:

humanities (studies intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills (rather than occupational or professional skills))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Marked or motivated by concern with the alleviation of suffering

Similar:

child-centered (designed to promote a child's personal qualities rather than to provide training or information)

human-centered; human-centred; humanist; humanistic; humanitarian (marked by humanistic values and devotion to human welfare)

Also:

civilised; civilized (having a high state of culture and development both social and technological)

compassionate (showing or having compassion)

human (having human form or attributes as opposed to those of animals or divine beings)

merciful (showing or giving mercy)

Attribute:

humaneness (the quality of compassion or consideration for others (people or animals))

Antonym:

inhumane (lacking and reflecting lack of pity or compassion)

Derivation:

humaneness (the quality of compassion or consideration for others (people or animals))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Showing evidence of moral and intellectual advancement

Similar:

civilised; civilized (having a high state of culture and development both social and technological)

 Context examples 

I suppose you would hardly ask me to call you a humane man, returned the doctor with a sneer, and so my feelings may surprise you, Master Silver.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He is not a gallant man, but he is a very humane one; and this, considering Jane Fairfax's ill-health, would appear a case of humanity to him;—and for an act of unostentatious kindness, there is nobody whom I would fix on more than on Mr. Knightley.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Yet he might not have been so perfectly humane, so thoughtful in his generosity, so full of kindness and tenderness amidst his passion for adventurous exploit, had she not unfolded to him the real loveliness of beneficence and made the doing good the end and aim of his soaring ambition.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)