Human or humane?
human is an adjective meaning “Of or belonging to the species Homo sapiens or its closest relatives”; humane is an adjective meaning “Having or showing concern for the pain or suffering of another; compassionate”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) human is about 54 times as common as humane.
What is the difference between human and humane?
| human | humane | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun, verb | adjective |
| Meaning | Of or belonging to the species Homo sapiens or its closest relatives Having the nature or attributes of a human being A highly intelligent ape with fine and short body hair; the most abundant species of primate, with members found on every continent (Homo sapiens) | Having or showing concern for the pain or suffering of another; compassionate Pertaining to branches of learning concerned with human affairs or the humanities, especially classical literature or rhetoric |
| Example | To err is human; to forgive, divine | It is no longer considered humane to perform vivisection on research animals |
| Forms | none | humaner, humanest |
| Pronunciation | /ˈhjuː.mən/ [ˈçju̟mən] [ˈçju̟mn̩] | /hjuːˈmeɪn/ /hjuˈmeɪn/ /hjʉːˈmæɪn/ |
| In writing | 224 times per million words | 4.2 times per million words |
Sources: human and humane in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of human and humane
human
- 1
Of or belonging to the species Homo sapiens or its closest relatives
- 2
A highly intelligent ape with fine and short body hair; the most abundant species of primate, with members found on every continent (Homo sapiens)
Humans share common ancestors with other apes
- 3
Having the nature or attributes of a human being
To err is human; to forgive, divine
- 4
A human as contrasted from superficially similar but typically more powerful humanoid creatures; a member of the human race
- 5
Compassionate
- 6
A term of address for any human, often implying the listener's species is their only noteworthy trait
- 7
Any hominid of the genus Homo
humane
- 1
Having or showing concern for the pain or suffering of another; compassionate
It is no longer considered humane to perform vivisection on research animals
- 2
Pertaining to branches of learning concerned with human affairs or the humanities, especially classical literature or rhetoric
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, human or humane?
human appears 224 times per million words; humane 4.2 times per million words.
human 224 times per million wordshumane 4.2 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search human vs humane?
“human vs humane” is searched about 170 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“humane vs human”, “human or humane”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.