humane
Americanadjective
-
characterized by tenderness, compassion, and sympathy for people and animals, especially for the suffering or distressed.
humane treatment of prisoners.
- Synonyms:
- charitable, benignant, benevolent, sympathetic, gentle, compassionate, tender, kindhearted, kindly, kind, merciful
-
acting in a manner that causes the least harm to people or animals.
humane trapping of stray pets.
-
of or relating to humanistic studies.
adjective
-
characterized by kindness, mercy, sympathy, etc
-
inflicting as little pain as possible
a humane killing
-
civilizing or liberal (esp in the phrases humane studies, humane education )
Related Words
See human.
Other Word Forms
- humanely adverb
- humaneness noun
- unhumane adjective
- unhumanely adverb
- unhumaneness noun
Etymology
Origin of humane
First recorded in 1425–75; originally a variant of human, restricted to above senses from the 18th century; germane, german
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Perhaps with this in mind, J.D. adopts a more humane approach when he counsels a frustrated charge.
From Salon
It’s why we’ve become humane at handling events like Ilia Malinin’s rough night in men’s skating, in which a metric ton of exterior and self-imposed pressure seemed to contribute to his public unraveling.
In the late Middle Ages, Christian theologians and jurists began to advance more humane views regarding the treatment of captured enemy combatants.
Today, in a supposedly more humane age, the perfect weapon is one that does minimum damage, sparing the innocent by targeting the guilty with maximum precision and surprise.
When useful idiots play along, the hypocrisy is double: Perpetrators pretend to be humane, and apologists pretend to believe them.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
