benevolent
adjective
Simple meaning
Having a disposition to do good.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
buhnehvuhluhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
bəˈnɛvələnt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Having a disposition to do good.
Altruistic, charitable, good, just and fair.
Possessing or manifesting love for mankind.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Having a disposition to do good.
Used this way, benevolent is a reasonably familiar word with a mildly favourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Positive and appreciative
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use benevolent
- “Chinese and Eastern mythologies describe dragons as benevolent.”adjective
- “A benevolent society.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Having a disposition
Other combinations
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: having a disposition to do good
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.