transhuman means more than human; superhuman. It carries an Arena rating of 1468, earned across 50 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, transhuman ranks #1,266 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #1,622 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #3,357 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #4,643 of 17,131 for Scariest Words.
Why “transhuman” is a great word
TRANSHUMAN — [Adjective, Noun] Adjective: Transcending human limitations; relating to the intellectual and cultural movement of transhumanism. Noun: An individual whose capabilities are enhanced beyond typical human limits, often as a transitional stage to a posthuman state. From the English prefix trans- (meaning "across, beyond") + human. As a concept, it was used in French (trans-humain) by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in the mid-20th century. The countable English noun form was introduced by F. M. Esfandiary in the 1960s, where trans- stands for "transitional". Unlike posthuman, which implies a state beyond human characteristics entirely, or superhuman, which denotes raw capability without a philosophy of transition, transhuman is defined by its state of becoming. It is the quiet hum of a cognitive implant parsing data-streams, the unnerving precision of a prosthetic limb, and the genetic tweak that banishes a hereditary blight—the palpable, anxious hope for an upgrade that does not erase the self it seeks to save, a bridge still anchored to the human shore.
Etymology
From trans- + human, also attested as trans-human in the 1950s. Attributed to Teilhard de Chardin, as French trans-humain (noun, sometimes capitalised as (le) Trans-humain), who used it alongside ultra-humain (“the ultra-human”). As a countable English noun (plural transhumans) introduced by F. M. Esfandiary in the 1960s (here trans- is short for transitional).
adj
- More than human; superhuman.e.g.“Turning fallible human foot soldiers into transhuman machines who need neither sleep nor food, and are incapable of resistance and independent thought, is a Napoleonic dream .” — 2009, Vinoth Ramachandra, Subverting Global Myths, →ISBN:
- Related to transhumanism.e.g.“I believe that this is important, because taken in isolation the kind of enhancements portrayed by transhuman philosophers might seem relatively innocuous.” — 2011, Ronald Cole-Turner, Transhumanism and Transcendence, →ISBN:
- Involving something beyond the merely human; transcending human limitations or boundaries.e.g.“Near-synonym: posthuman (sometimes synonymous)”
noun
- An enhanced human:; An individual having characteristics transitional between a human and a posthuman species.e.g.“In the same way that a transhuman is a transitional human, Christians are also humans in transition, living in a kingdom that has come and yet is coming, “strangers in the world.”” — 2007, Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Charles A. Anderson, Michael J. Sleasman, Everyday Theology (Cultural Exegesis), →ISBN:
- An enhanced human:; An individual of a posthuman species.e.g.“On the coffee table rested a sculpture of the fundamental, recombinant DNA of the present transhumans.” — 2008, Christopher Ejsmond, Reflections on Life, →ISBN, page 100:
- A being that transcends humanity; a superhuman being.e.g.“I bet every critter that thinks it thinks—even the transhumans—worry about how to do right for themselves and the ones they love.” — 2002, Vernor Vinge, The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge, →ISBN:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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