These words refer to living things other than plants. Animal may refer to all such beings, as in biological terminology where life is divided into two groups, plants and animals . In common use, however, the word is more specifically applied to all such beings with the exception of humans: man and the animals he lives among. The contexts of some uses, furthermore, make it clear that birds, fish and insects are also not included in the term. At its most restricted, the word can even refer strictly only to domestic quadrupeds: pigs, sheep, cattle and other animals. When the word is applied to a human being in other than a scientific context, the emphasis is on depravity or amorality: a disgusting animal who cared for no one but himself. Creature does not have this range of possibility in meaning; it refers invariably to all living beings other than plants: all God’s creatures . When a human being is referred to by this word, however, pity or contempt is usually present: the poor little creature , what a vile creature .

Beast and brute both restrict themselves to animals other than man, but especially to the higher mammals: lions, leopards and other beasts of the veldt; such beasts of burden as the donkey and the horse. While beast , thus, has a neutrally descriptive possibility, brute is charged with an emphasis on supposedly non-human qualities like wildness, viciousness or stupidity: the jungle rule of brute versus brute . More commonly, brute is used to describe a strong, cruel or stupid human being: a nasty brute of a man. Beast can also be applied to a human being, but unlike brute, it stresses mostly degradation and extreme inhumanity: the woman who was called the Beast of Belsen. In this use, beast is more pejorative than brute , but both are more negative than animal when it is used in this way. Beast refers also to farm animals raised for butchering.