Meanings
- usually preceded by theWhat it means to be human; the experiences, characteristics, and limitations of life shared by all humans, as opposed to other lifeforms.
Youth dies. Life hurts. Love warms. Understanding heals. The wounds and balms of the human condition are so commonplace that men eventually experience them without noticing.
1970 May 18, “Alive and Well”, in Time3 more examples
Neither symboliste nor decadent, he was a pessimist in so far as that character applies to a man who looks at the worst contingencies as well as the best in the human condition.
1894, Thomas Hardy, An Imaginative WomanChristian theology traditionally sees three elements of the human condition that are in need of transformation: sin (estrangement from God), evil (estrangement among humans), and death (mortality, and our estrangement from nature).
2006, S. Mark Heim, Saved from Sacrifice, →ISBN, page 8Mr. McCarthy’s fiction took a dark view of the human condition and was often macabre. He decorated his novels with scalpings, beheadings, arson, rape, incest, necrophilia and cannibalism.
2023 June 13, Dwight Garner, “Cormac McCarthy, Novelist of a Darker America, Is Dead at 89”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
Translations
Catalan condició humana
- condició humanacharacteristics, key events and situations which compose the essentials of human experience
Chinese Mandarin 人類條件 /人类条件, 人性
- 人類條件 /人类条件 (rénlèi tiáojiàn)characteristics, key events and situations which compose the essentials of human experience
- 人性 (rénxìng)characteristics, key events and situations which compose the essentials of human experience
Danish conditio humana
- conditio humanacharacteristics, key events and situations which compose the essentials of human experience
Finnish ihmisyys
- ihmisyyscharacteristics, key events and situations which compose the essentials of human experience
French condition humaine
- condition humainecharacteristics, key events and situations which compose the essentials of human experience
German Conditio humana
- Conditio humanacharacteristics, key events and situations which compose the essentials of human experience
Italian condizione umana
- condizione umanacharacteristics, key events and situations which compose the essentials of human experience
Portuguese condição humana
- condição humanacharacteristics, key events and situations which compose the essentials of human experience
Russian человече́ская ситуа́ция, челове́ческое усло́вие
- человече́ская ситуа́ция (čelovečéskaja situácija)characteristics, key events and situations which compose the essentials of human experience
- челове́ческое усло́вие (čelovéčeskoje uslóvije)characteristics, key events and situations which compose the essentials of human experience
Spanish condición humana
- condición humanacharacteristics, key events and situations which compose the essentials of human experience
Cite this entry
human condition. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/human%20condition
“human condition.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/human%20condition. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “human condition,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/human%20condition.
Source: human condition on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.