HUMANITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does humanity mean? 

• HUMANITY (noun)
  The noun HUMANITY has 3 senses:

1. the quality of being humane

2. the quality of being human

3. all of the living human inhabitants of the earth

  Familiarity information: HUMANITY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HUMANITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The quality of being humane

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("humanity" is a kind of...):

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

Derivation:

humanitarian (of or relating to or characteristic of humanitarianism)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of being human

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

humanity; humanness; manhood

Context example:

he feared the speedy decline of all manhood

Hypernyms ("humanity" is a kind of...):

quality (an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone)

Attribute:

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

nonhuman (not human; not belonging to or produced by or appropriate to human beings)

Derivation:

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

human (relating to a person)

Sense 3

Meaning:

All of the living human inhabitants of the earth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

human beings; human race; humanity; humankind; humans; man; mankind; world

Context example:

she always used 'humankind' because 'mankind' seemed to slight the women

Hypernyms ("humanity" is a kind of...):

group; grouping (any number of entities (members) considered as a unit)

homo; human; human being; man (any living or extinct member of the family Hominidae characterized by superior intelligence, articulate speech, and erect carriage)

Meronyms (members of "humanity"):

people ((plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively)

 Context examples 

No man of common humanity, no man who had any value for his character, could be capable of it.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

There could be little doubt, however, that the stone was aimed at us, so the incident surely pointed to humanity—and malevolent humanity—upon the plateau.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

See that she is cared for as her condition demands, and you have done all that God and humanity require of you.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

You bring with you certain fine conceptions of humanity, manhood, conduct, and such things; but here you will find them misconceptions. I have found it so, I added, with an involuntary sigh.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

If humanity had been wiped out, the gods would have starved.

(‘Trickster god’ used fake news in Babylonian Noah story, University of Cambridge)

I fear, said Holmes, that if the matter is beyond humanity it is certainly beyond me.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Voyager 2 spacecraft gave humanity its first close-up look at Neptune and its moon Triton in the summer of 1989.

(Voyager Map Details Neptune's Strange Moon Triton, NASA)

His character, however, answered Elinor, does not rest on ONE act of kindness, to which his affection for Marianne, were humanity out of the case, would have prompted him.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

His good-nature, his humanity, as I tell you, would be quite enough to account for the horses.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Believe me, Frankenstein, I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity; but am I not alone, miserably alone?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)