Humanitarian

How to spell humanitarian

12 letters · 6 syllables

How to pronounce humanitarian

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does humanitarian mean?

1. adjectiveConcerned with reducing human suffering and improving people's welfare.
2. nounA person actively devoted to promoting human welfare and relieving suffering.

Humanitarian in a sentence

• adjective

  The charity launched a humanitarian appeal for flood victims.

• noun

  She was remembered as a tireless humanitarian who funded dozens of clinics.

• adjective

  Aid agencies warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis at the border.

• noun

  The award honours a humanitarian whose work reaches the world's poorest regions.

Where does humanitarian come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word grows from the Latin humanus, meaning 'of or belonging to people', which in turn comes from homo, the Latin word for a human being. English already had 'human' and 'humane' from this root by the late Middle Ages, but 'humanitarian' is a much later coinage, appearing in the early 1800s. It was modelled on words like 'unitarian' and 'trinitarian', borrowing that distinctive -itarian ending used for those who hold a particular doctrine. At first it carried a theological flavour, describing people who stressed Christ's human nature, but it soon shifted to its modern meaning of someone devoted to the welfare of others. The spelling trap lives in that long unstressed middle: writers must remember the full 'human' plus 'itarian', since the rapid -i-ta-ri-an run is easy to garble.

How the word is built

• human- (from humanus: of mankind)
• -itarian (forming nouns/adjectives denoting a doctrine or its adherent)