humanity

Definitions

1. 1.Mankind collectively; the human race. But hearing oftentimes The still, and music humanity. Wordsworth. It is a debt we owe to humanity. S. S. Smith.
2. 2.The quality of being humane; the kind feelings, dispositions, and sympathies of man; especially, a disposition to relieve persons or animals in distress, and to treat all creatures with kindness and tenderness. "The common offices of humanity and friendship." Locke.
3. 3.Mental cultivation; liberal education; instruction in classical and polite literature. Polished with humanity and the study of witty science. Holland.
4. 4.pl. (With definite article) The branches of polite or elegant learning; as language, rhetoric, poetry, and the ancient classics; belles-letters. Note: The cultivation of the languages, literature, history, and archæology of Greece and Rome, were very commonly called literæ humaniores, or, in English, the humanities, . . . by way of opposition to the literæ divinæ, or divinity. G. P. Marsh.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Synonyms

Related questions

• What does "humanity" mean?
• What is another word for "humanity"?

Reverse-dictionary questions

Definition-first questions whose answer is humanity.

• What is mankind collectively; the human race. But hearing oftentimes The still, and music humanity. Wordsworth. It is a debt we owe to humanity. S. S. Smith called?
• What is mental cultivation; liberal education; instruction in classical and polite literature. Polished with humanity and the study of witty science. Holland called?