humanity

Definitions of Humanity

1. (noun) A collective term for all humans.
2. (noun) The condition or state of being human.

Examples of Humanity

• Definition 1:
  • All of the people on Earth.
• Definition 2:
  • The similar lived experiences of people around the world, regardless of location or socioeconomic status such as aging and music.

Humanity Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification: hu·man·i·ty

Audio Pronunciation

International Phonetic Alphabet

• American English – /hjuˈmænədi/
• British English – /hjuːˈmanᵻti/

Usage Notes

• Plural: humanities
• Also called:
  • human race
  • humankind
  • humanness
• Historically called:
  • man
  • mankind

Additional Information

• Word origin of “humanity” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
• Zeitlin, Irving M. 1984. The Social Condition of Humanity: An Introduction to Sociology. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
• The Association for Humanist Sociology: ccsu.edu

Related Terms

• affective individualism
• demography
• humanism
• organization
• people
• population

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Works Consulted

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 5th ed. 2011. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Collins English Dictionary: Complete and Unabridged. 6th ed. 2003. Glasgow, Scotland: Collins.

Farlex. (N.d.) TheFreeDictionary.com: Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus. Farlex. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/).

Macmillan. (N.d.) Macmillan Dictionary. (https://www.macmillandictionary.com/).

Merriam-Webster. (N.d.) Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/).

Oxford University Press. (N.d.) Oxford Dictionaries. (https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/).

Princeton University. 2010. WordNet. (https://wordnet.princeton.edu/).

Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. 1997. New York: Random House.

Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wiktionary, The Free Dictionary. Wikimedia Foundation. (http://en.wiktionary.org).

Cite the Definition of Humanity

ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “humanity.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved June 5, 2023 (https://sociologydictionary.org/humanity/).

APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)

humanity. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/humanity/

Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “humanity.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed June 5, 2023. https://sociologydictionary.org/humanity/.

MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)

“humanity.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 5 Jun. 2023. <https://sociologydictionary.org/humanity/>.