Search Result for "humanity": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (3)

1. the quality of being humane;

2. the quality of being human;
- Example: "he feared the speedy decline of all manhood"
[syn: humanness, humanity, manhood]

3. all of the living human inhabitants of the earth;
- Example: "all the world loves a lover"
- Example: "she always used `humankind' because `mankind'; seemed to slight the women";
[syn: world, human race, humanity, humankind, human beings, humans, mankind, man]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Humanity \Hu*man"i*ty\, n.; pl. Humanities. [L. humanitas: cf. F. humanit['e]. See Human.] 1. The quality of being human; the peculiar nature of man, by which he is distinguished from other beings. [1913 Webster] 2. Mankind collectively; the human race. [1913 Webster] But hearing oftentimes The still, and music humanity. --Wordsworth. [1913 Webster] It is a debt we owe to humanity. --S. S. Smith. [1913 Webster] 3. 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. [1913 Webster] 4. Mental cultivation; liberal education; instruction in classical and polite literature. [1913 Webster] Polished with humanity and the study of witty science. --Holland. [1913 Webster] 5. pl. (With definite article) The branches of polite or elegant learning; as language, rhetoric, poetry, and the ancient classics; belles-letters. [1913 Webster] Note: The cultivation of the languages, literature, history, and arch[ae]ology of Greece and Rome, were very commonly called liter[ae] humaniores, or, in English, the humanities, . . . by way of opposition to the liter[ae] divin[ae], or divinity. --G. P. Marsh. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

humanity n 1: the quality of being humane 2: the quality of being human; "he feared the speedy decline of all manhood" [syn: humanness, humanity, manhood] 3: all of the living human inhabitants of the earth; "all the world loves a lover"; "she always used `humankind' because `mankind' seemed to slight the women" [syn: world, human race, humanity, humankind, human beings, humans, mankind, man]
The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):

HUMANITY, n. The human race, collectively, exclusive of the anthropoid poets.