humanist means relating to humanism or the humanities. It carries an Arena rating of 1576, earned across 17 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, humanist ranks #3,212 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #3,514 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #6,035 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #9,555 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words.
humanist is pronounced /ˈhjuːmənɪst/.
Why “humanist” is a great word
Relating to a system of thought or education centered on human values and capacities, or a person who studies or promotes it. From Middle French *humaniste* ("classics scholar, classicist"), from Latin *humanus* ("human") + the agent suffix *-ista* ("-ist"), first recorded in English 1585–95. Unlike "humanitarian," which denotes active concern for human welfare, or "theist," which grounds belief in the divine, a humanist grounds belief in humanity itself. It is the quiet dignity of a study lined with well-thumbed classics, the rational argument offered in a council of war, and the stubborn insistence on compassion in a universe of indifference—a secular faith that our highest purpose is built, piece by piece, from the materials we find here.
Etymology
From Middle French humaniste.
adj
- Relating to humanism or the humanities.
- Of a typeface: resembling classical handwritten monumental Roman letters rather than the 19th-century grotesque typefaces.
noun
- A scholar of one of the subjects in the humanities.
- A person who believes in the philosophy of humanism.
- In the Renaissance, a scholar of Greek and Roman classics.
- A secularist, especially an agnostic or atheist.e.g.“Religious Census Figures Challenged by Humanists” — 1957, The Churchman:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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