HUMANITY

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

(noun) 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”

humanness, humanity, manhood

(noun) the quality of being human; “he feared the speedy decline of all manhood”

humanity

(noun) the quality of being humane

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

humanity (countable and uncountable, plural humanities)

Mankind; human beings as a group.

Synonym: Thesaurus:humankind

The human condition or nature.

The quality of being benevolent; humane traits of character; humane qualities or aspects.

Synonym: humaneness

Any academic subject belonging to the humanities.

Source: Wiktionary

Hu*man"i*ty, n.; pl. Humanities. Etym: [L. humanitas: cf. F. humanité. See Human.]

1. The quality of being human; the peculiar nature of man, by which he is distinguished from other beings.

2. 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.

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.

4. Mental cultivation; liberal education; instruction in classical and polite literature. Polished with humanity and the study of witty science. Holland.

5. pl. (With definite article)

Definition: 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