Inhuman

//ɪnˈhjuːmən// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to inhumanity and the indifferently cruel, sadistic or barbaric behavior it brings.

    "It was replaced by a New Euston, "bold in design and layout and in keeping with a new railway era". Betjeman was unmoved, describing it tersely as "no masterpiece" and noting that its lack of platform seating made it an "inhuman structure" which seemed to ignore passengers."

  2. 2
    Transcending or different than what is human.

    "When he was out among men, seeking his own ends, and “making good! his colliery workings, he had an almost uncanny shrewdness, hardness, and a straight sharp punch. It was as if his very passivity and prostitution to the Magna Mater gave him insight into material business affairs, and lent him a certain remarkable inhuman force."

Adjective
  1. 1
    belonging to or resembling something nonhuman wordnet
  2. 2
    without compunction or human feeling wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
animalanthropophagousatrociousbarbarianbarbaricbarbarous

Example

More examples

"The Germans have an inhuman way of cutting up their verbs. Now a verb has a hard time enough of it in this world when it's all together. It's downright inhuman to split it up. But that's just what those Germans do. They take part of a verb and put it down here, like a stake, and they take the other part of it and put it away over yonder like another stake, and between these two limits they just shovel in German."

Etymology

From Middle English inhumayne, from Middle French inhumain and its etymon Latin inhūmānus.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.