Humanoid

A humanoid (/ˈhjuːmənɔɪd/; from English human and -oid "resembling") is a non-human entity with human form or characteristics. By the 20th century, the term came to describe fossils which were morphologically similar, but not identical, to those of the human skeleton.^[1]

Although this usage was common in the sciences for much of the 20th century, it is now considered rare.^[1] More generally, the term can refer to anything with distinctly human characteristics or adaptations, such as possessing opposable anterior forelimb-appendages (i.e. thumbs), visible spectrum-binocular vision (i.e. having two eyes), or biomechanic plantigrade-bipedalism (i.e. the ability to walk on heels and metatarsals in an upright position). Humanoids may also include human-animal hybrids (where each cell has partly human and partly animal genetic contents) and human-animal chimeras (where some cells are human and some cells are animal in origin).^[2] Science fiction media frequently present sentient extraterrestrial lifeforms as humanoid as a byproduct of convergent evolution.

Humanoid characters are defined by their human-like physical characteristics and forms, which can vary. These characters may appear entirely human, predominantly human-like (e.g., Saiyans from Dragon Ball Z, Martians and Kryptonians from DC Comics), or they may possess general non-human traits while still having human-like physical characteristics (e.g., human-like Pokémon, ThunderCats characters, various characters from The Amazing World of Gumball). In the latter case, they often overlap with anthropomorphic characters, with humanoid characters being a subtype of anthropomorphism, specifically in terms of physical characteristics.