Benevolent — Meaning, Definition & Synonyms

Benevolent (adjective) — Senses, Synonyms & Antonyms

1. having or marked by sympathy and consideration for others

   "a benevolent willingness to provide veterinary services to low-income families at greatly reduced prices"

   similar: beneficent, benignant, compassionate, good-hearted, humane, kind, kindhearted, kindly, softhearted, sympathetic, tender, tenderhearted, warmhearted
   related: attentive, considerate, solicitous, thoughtful, affable, amicable, benign, companionable, comradely, cordial, friendly, genial, gentle, good, good-natured, good-tempered, gracious, mild, neighborly, nice, pleasant, sweet, warm, clement, forbearing, forgiving, lenient, merciful, soft, patient, pitying, tolerant, understanding, altruistic, brotherly, charitable, freehanded, generous, greathearted, humanitarian, liberal, magnanimous, munificent, noble, openhearted, philanthropic, selfless, unselfish, unsparing, anticruelty, cruelty-free
   opposite: atrocious, barbaric, barbarous, bestial, brutal, brute, brutish, callous, cold-blooded, cruel, fiendish, hard-hearted, heartless, inhuman, inhumane, insensate, sadistic, savage, truculent, uncompassionate, unfeeling, unkind, unkindly, unsympathetic, vicious, wanton
   near: ironhearted, merciless, pitiless, ruthless, stonyhearted, inconsiderate, insensitive, thoughtless, uncaring, unthinking, grim, hard-boiled, harsh, heavy-handed, severe, stern, tough, unsentimental, hateful, malevolent, malicious, malign, malignant, mean, nasty, spiteful, virulent, antihumanitarian, uncharitable

2. having or showing a concern for the welfare of others

   "a benevolent businessman who has donated money and time to helping inner-city youths"

   similar: altruistic, beneficent, charitable, do-good, eleemosynary, good, humanitarian, philanthropic
   related: selfless, self-sacrificing, bighearted, bounteous, bountiful, free, freehanded, generous, greathearted, handsome, liberal, magnanimous, munificent, openhanded, openhearted, unselfish, unsparing, compassionate, humane, kind, kindhearted, social-minded
   opposite: self-centered, self-concerned, selfish
   near: self-indulgent, self-seeking, cheap, closefisted, miserly, parsimonious, stingy, tight, tightfisted, hard-hearted, pitiless, unfeeling, self-obsessed