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Definition of humanitarian adjective from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

humanitarian

adjective
 
 
/hjuːˌmænɪˈteəriən/
 
/hjuːˌmænɪˈteriən/
[usually before noun]
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  1.  
    connected with helping people who are suffering and improving the conditions that they are living in
    • to provide humanitarian aid to the war zone
    • humanitarian issues
    • a humanitarian organization
    • They are calling for the release of the hostages on humanitarian grounds.
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs
    • be
    adverb
    • purely
    • essentially
    See full entry
  2.  
    (especially in journalism) describing an event or situation that causes or involves a lot of human suffering, especially one that requires aid to be provided to a large number of people
    • a humanitarian crisis
    • These floods are the worst humanitarian disaster the country has seen.
    • The expulsion of thousands of people represents a humanitarian catastrophe of enormous proportions.
    3. Word Originearly 19th cent.: from humanity + -arian.
See humanitarian in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee humanitarian in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English
Check pronunciation: humanitarian

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trait
noun
 
 
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