humanities

/hjuˈmæn.ɪ.tiz/

humanities is the plural of humanity.

Noun

humanities pl (plural only)

(obsolete, plural, plural-only) Synonym of classical studies: the study of Ancient Greek and Latin, their literature, etc.

Synonyms:

classical studies
(plural, plural-only) The study of language, literature, the arts, history, and philosophy, sometimes including religion.
- The Old Church is one of nearly 240 recipients of grants awarded by NEH for humanities projects in support of the preservation of historic collections, humanities documentaries and exhibitions, scholarly books and research, and educational opportunities for teachers, according to the agency’s...2021 August 17, Artemis Moshtaghian, “Church made famous by Paul Revere reckons with its ties to slavery”, in CNN
Synonyms:

belles-lettres, arts

humanity (countable and uncountable, plural humanities)

(uncountable) Humankind; human beings as a group.
- Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
Synonyms:

humankind, Man, mankind, peoplekind, personkind, race, human race, Homo sapiens
(uncountable) The human condition or nature.
(uncountable) The quality of being benevolent; humane traits of character; humane qualities or aspects.
- Think of that; by that sweet girl that old man had a child: hold ye then there can be any utter, hopeless harm in Ahab? No, no, my lad; stricken, blasted, if he be, Ahab has his humanities!1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Ship”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 90
Synonyms:

humaneness
(countable) Any academic subject belonging to the humanities.
- Philosophy is a humanity while psychology is a science.

What does humanities mean?: Humanities means synonym of classical studies: the study of Ancient Greek and Latin, their literature, etc.
What is humanities the plural of?: Humanities is the plural of humanity.
What part of speech is humanities?: Humanities is a noun.
How do you pronounce humanities?: Humanities is pronounced /hjuˈmæn.ɪ.tiz/ (US).

Adapted from Wiktionary: humanities (page history and authors); humanity (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-humanities.ogg.

Cite this entry: “humanities.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/humanities. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.