Humanist

How to spell humanist

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce humanist

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does humanist mean?

1. nounA person who emphasises human reason, values, and welfare, often without reliance on religious belief.
2. adjectiveRelating to humanism or to the values and outlook of those who centre human reason and welfare.

Humanist in a sentence

• noun

  As a committed humanist, she argued that ethics can be grounded in reason alone.

• adjective

  The charity runs on broadly humanist principles, focusing on human dignity and reason.

• noun

  The ceremony was led by a humanist rather than a member of the clergy.

• adjective

  His humanist outlook shaped the curriculum, with classical texts at its core.

Where does humanist come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin humanus, meaning 'human' or 'humane', which itself grew from homo, the Latin word for a person or human being. The modern sense was shaped during the Renaissance, when the Italian word umanista described a scholar devoted to the studia humanitatis, the study of classical literature, grammar, and moral philosophy rather than theology. English borrowed the term in the sixteenth century, first to name those Renaissance scholars and later to describe people who centre human values, reason, and welfare instead of religious doctrine. The same humanus root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'humane' and 'humanity', which is a useful reminder that the spelling keeps the plain 'human' intact before the -ist ending. Because the word is simply 'human' plus a common suffix, the trap is small: writers just need to resist inserting an extra letter or doubling anything.

How the word is built

• human (from Latin humanus: human, humane)
• -ist (one who follows or practises)