Mankind means human beings considered as a whole. The history of mankind, for all mankind, benefit mankind.
It is falling out of use, and humanity or humankind are now the usual choices, because mankind takes the male as the default. Armstrong's line about one giant leap for mankind is the most famous use. Note that the -kind here means kin, not sort.
1nounmankindHuman beings considered as a whole.
“The invention of the wheel was one of the great steps forward for mankind.”
mankind is humanity.
Old English mancynn is man plus cynn, kin. The kind spelling came later by confusion with kind, a sort.
Proto-Indo-European
*mon-
Old English
mancynn
Middle English
mankynde
English, today
mankind
From Middle English mankynde, alteration (due to kynde = “kind, nature, sort”) of earlier mankyn, from Old English mancynn. Equivalent to man + kin, and/or man + kind. Cognate with Scots mankind, Middle High German mankünne, Danish mandkøn, Icelandic mannkyn (“mankind”). See also mankin.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA