benevolent

1. a. Having a disposition to do good; possessing or manifesting love to mankind, and a desire to promote their prosperity and happiness; disposed to give to good objects; kind; charitable. Source: opted

2. adj. intending or showing kindness Source: wordnet

3. adj. showing or motivated by sympathy and understanding and generosity Source: wordnet

4. adj. generous in providing aid to others Source: wordnet

5. adj. generous in assistance to the poor Source: wordnet

6. Having a disposition to do good; possessing or manifesting love to mankind, and a desire to promote their prosperity and happiness; disposed to give to good objects; kind; charitable. -- Be*nev"o*lent*ly, adv. Syn. -- Benevolent, Beneficent. Etymologically considered, benevolent implies wishing well to others, and beneficent, doing well. But by degrees the word benevolent has been widened to include not only feelings, but actions; thus, we speak of benevolent operations, benevolent labors for the public good, benevolent societies. In like manner, beneficent is now often applied to feelings; thus, we speak of the beneficent intentions of a donor. This extension of the terms enables us to mark nicer shades of meaning. Thus, the phrase "benevolent labors" turns attention to the source of these labors, viz., benevolent feeling; while beneficent would simply mark them as productive of good. So, "beneficent intentions" point to the feelings of the donor as bent upon some specific good act; while "benevolent intentions" would only denote a general wish and design to do good. Source: webster

7. Having a disposition to do good; possessing or manifesting loveto mankind, and a desire to promote their prosperity and happiness;disposed to give to good objects; kind; charitable.-- Be*nev"o*lent*ly, adv. Source: adambom

8. j:100 a. intending or showing kindness s. generous in providing aid to others Source: ecdict

Thesaurus links

From the definitions

Explore more