Humane — Meaning, Definition & Synonyms

Humane (adjective) — Senses, Synonyms & Antonyms

1. having or marked by sympathy and consideration for others

   "humane guards who treated the prisoners decently"

   "the Geneva conventions spelled out standards for the humane treatment of prisoners of war"

   similar: beneficent, benevolent, benignant, compassionate, good-hearted, kind, kindhearted, kindly, softhearted, sympathetic, tender, tenderhearted, warmhearted
   related: attentive, considerate, solicitous, thoughtful, affable, amicable, benign, companionable, comradely, cordial, friendly, genial, gentle, good, good-natured, good-tempered, gracious, mild, neighborly, nice, pleasant, sweet, warm, clement, forbearing, forgiving, lenient, merciful, soft, patient, pitying, tolerant, understanding, altruistic, brotherly, charitable, freehanded, generous, greathearted, humanitarian, liberal, magnanimous, munificent, noble, openhearted, philanthropic, selfless, unselfish, unsparing, anticruelty, cruelty-free
   opposite: atrocious, barbaric, barbarous, bestial, brutal, brute, brutish, callous, cold-blooded, cruel, fiendish, hard-hearted, heartless, inhuman, inhumane, insensate, sadistic, savage, truculent, uncompassionate, unfeeling, unkind, unkindly, unsympathetic, vicious, wanton
   near: ironhearted, merciless, pitiless, ruthless, stonyhearted, inconsiderate, insensitive, thoughtless, uncaring, unthinking, grim, hard-boiled, harsh, heavy-handed, severe, stern, tough, unsentimental, hateful, malevolent, malicious, malign, malignant, mean, nasty, spiteful, virulent, antihumanitarian, uncharitable

2. having or showing the capacity for sharing the feelings of another

   "the movie's humane depiction of people who are physically and mentally challenged"

   similar: commiserative, compassionate, empathetic, empathic, sympathetic, understanding
   related: feeling, perceptive, sensitive, considerate, gentle, softhearted, tender, tenderhearted, warm, warmhearted, benevolent, benignant, bighearted, charitable, kind, kindhearted, kindly, largehearted, magnanimous, clement, lenient, merciful, tolerant, pitying, ruthful, congenial, cordial, friendly, genial, good-natured, good-tempered, gracious, well-disposed, affectionate, loving
   opposite: callous, cold-blooded, coldhearted, hard, hard-hearted, heartless, inhuman, inhumane, insensate, obdurate, unfeeling, unsympathetic
   near: inconsiderate, insensitive, thoughtless, unthinking, aloof, cool, indifferent, uncaring, uninterested, unaffectionate, unfriendly, unloving, merciless, pitiless, ruthless, bigoted, blinkered, narrow-minded, small-minded, brutal, grim, hard-bitten, hard-boiled, harsh, oppressive, rough, severe, stern, tough, ungentle, unrelenting, abusive, acrimonious, disagreeable, hateful, hostile, ill-natured, ill-tempered, malevolent, malicious, mean, rancorous, spiteful, surly, unkind, virulent