human beings

Noun

human being (plural human beings)

1. A person; a large sapient, bipedal primate, with notably less hair than others of that order, of the species Homo sapiens.
   • He began to reflect that in a few Minutes he might possibly deprive a human Being of Life, or might lose his own.1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, VII xiv

   Synonyms:

   featherless biped, human, human bean, man, naked ape, person, sapiens, woman

2. Any member of the genus Homo, including extinct species.
   • The first real human beings in China lived about 600,000 years ago. Fossils of Gigantopithecus, a Latin name for Giant Ape, were dug up at Lan-t'ien in the early 1960s. Though they looked a lot like apes, the Lan-t'ien people were among the first of our species to make tools.1983, Valjean McLenighan, China, A History to 1949, Chicago: Children's Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 10