unhuman

Unhuman is an English adjective that denotes not human or lacking human qualities. It is formed from the prefix un- attached to human. In contemporary usage, unhuman is relatively rare and is often replaced by nonhuman or inhuman depending on the context. The term can appear in academic, literary, or speculative writing where a clear distinction between human and nonhuman is being emphasized.

Distinctions between terms can be subtle. Inhuman usually conveys cruelty, brutality, or a failure to act in accordance with humane norms, while unhuman more often signals an ontological negation—a being or thing that is not human in nature. In practice, however, the two can overlap, and some writers use unhuman in a nonjudgmental sense to stress difference rather than moral judgment.

In philosophy and fiction, the concept of the unhuman appears in discussions of personhood, nonhuman animals, artificial intelligences, and posthumanism. It is used to articulate boundaries between human and nonhuman and to explore what constitutes humanity. In literary contexts, unhuman can describe settings or entities that are not human yet share other traits, inviting reflection on human identity, cognition, or emotion. In everyday prose, nonhuman tends to be the preferred neutral term, while unhuman remains more stylistic or archaic in tone.

See also: nonhuman, inhuman, posthuman, personhood, artificial intelligence.