inhumane
/ɪnhjʊˈmeɪn
/adjective
Without compassion for misery or suffering; cruel: confining wild horses is inhumane...
- If those who have the power to change this law have listened to my story, then I hope they will see that the law is cruel, barbaric and inhumane.
- Brutal, cruel, inhumane and disturbing violence happens all over the world.
- He has been treated in a cruel, inhumane and degrading manner, he wants the authorities to answer for that.
Synonyms
cruel, harsh, brutal, callous, sadistic, severe, savage, vicious, barbaric, barbarous;
bestial, monstrous, inhuman, fiendish, diabolical, evil, wicked, heinous;
merciless, ruthless, pitiless, unpitying, remorseless, cold-blooded, heartless, hard-hearted, stone-hearted, with a heart of stone, unforgiving;
unkind, unkindly, inconsiderate, unsympathetic, unfeeling, uncaring
informal hard-boiled, hard-nosed
British informal, dated beastly
archaic dastardly, sanguinary
rare egregious, flagitious
Derivatives
inhumanely
- See, it's important to me as a consumer that the food on my plate has not raised inhumanely.
- They are said to have inhumanely treated internees, who sustained injuries following repeated assaults.
- They've been picked out and treated very inhumanely, without a chance to rectify a mistake or correct their status.
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense 'inhuman, brutal'): originally a variant of inhuman (rare after 1700); in modern use from in-1 'not' + humane (the current sense dating from the early 19th century).