"man is the measure of all things" meaning in English

See man is the measure of all things in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Etymology: According to Plato, the phrase was coined by Greek philosopher Protagoras. Head templates: {{head|en|phrase}} man is the measure of all things
  1. (an expression of) the doctrine that all knowledge is subjective, being derived from observations made by humans, and there can be no objective truth Translations (Translations): l'home és la mesura de totes les coses (Catalan), 人类是一切的测量具 (Chinese Mandarin), mennesket er alle tings mål (Danish), kõigi asjade mõõt on inimene (Estonian), ihminen on kaiken mitta (Finnish), l’homme est la mesure de toute chose (French), der Mensch ist das Maß aller Dinge (German), homo mensura (Latin), mannesket er målstokken for alle ting (Norwegian), człowiek jest miarą wszystkiego (Polish), челове́к есть ме́ра всех вещей существующих (čelovék jestʹ méra vsex veščej suščestvujuščix) (Russian), el hombre es la medida de todas las cosas (Spanish), människan är alltings mått (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-man_is_the_measure_of_all_things-en-phrase-HtpzMjxs Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Download JSON data for man is the measure of all things meaning in English (2.5kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "According to Plato, the phrase was coined by Greek philosopher Protagoras.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "man is the measure of all things",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "the doctrine that all knowledge is subjective, being derived from observations made by humans, and there can be no objective truth"
      ],
      "id": "en-man_is_the_measure_of_all_things-en-phrase-HtpzMjxs",
      "links": [
        [
          "doctrine",
          "doctrine"
        ],
        [
          "knowledge",
          "knowledge"
        ],
        [
          "subjective",
          "subjective"
        ],
        [
          "observation",
          "observation"
        ],
        [
          "human",
          "human"
        ],
        [
          "truth",
          "truth"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "an expression of",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(an expression of) the doctrine that all knowledge is subjective, being derived from observations made by humans, and there can be no objective truth"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "ca",
          "lang": "Catalan",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "l'home és la mesura de totes les coses"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "人类是一切的测量具"
        },
        {
          "code": "da",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "mennesket er alle tings mål"
        },
        {
          "code": "et",
          "lang": "Estonian",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "kõigi asjade mõõt on inimene"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "ihminen on kaiken mitta"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "l’homme est la mesure de toute chose"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "der Mensch ist das Maß aller Dinge"
        },
        {
          "code": "la",
          "lang": "Latin",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "homo mensura"
        },
        {
          "code": "no",
          "lang": "Norwegian",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "mannesket er målstokken for alle ting"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "człowiek jest miarą wszystkiego"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "čelovék jestʹ méra vsex veščej suščestvujuščix",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "челове́к есть ме́ра всех вещей существующих"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "el hombre es la medida de todas las cosas"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "människan är alltings mått"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "man is the measure of all things"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "According to Plato, the phrase was coined by Greek philosopher Protagoras.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "man is the measure of all things",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrases",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "the doctrine that all knowledge is subjective, being derived from observations made by humans, and there can be no objective truth"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "doctrine",
          "doctrine"
        ],
        [
          "knowledge",
          "knowledge"
        ],
        [
          "subjective",
          "subjective"
        ],
        [
          "observation",
          "observation"
        ],
        [
          "human",
          "human"
        ],
        [
          "truth",
          "truth"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "an expression of",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(an expression of) the doctrine that all knowledge is subjective, being derived from observations made by humans, and there can be no objective truth"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "ca",
      "lang": "Catalan",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "l'home és la mesura de totes les coses"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "人类是一切的测量具"
    },
    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "mennesket er alle tings mål"
    },
    {
      "code": "et",
      "lang": "Estonian",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "kõigi asjade mõõt on inimene"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "ihminen on kaiken mitta"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "l’homme est la mesure de toute chose"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "der Mensch ist das Maß aller Dinge"
    },
    {
      "code": "la",
      "lang": "Latin",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "homo mensura"
    },
    {
      "code": "no",
      "lang": "Norwegian",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "mannesket er målstokken for alle ting"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "człowiek jest miarą wszystkiego"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "čelovék jestʹ méra vsex veščej suščestvujuščix",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "челове́к есть ме́ра всех вещей существующих"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "el hombre es la medida de todas las cosas"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "människan är alltings mått"
    }
  ],
  "word": "man is the measure of all things"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.