Antonyms for benevolence
bəˈnɛv ə lənsbenev·o·lence

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:4.0 / 1 vote

1. benevolence

   According to the etymology and original usage, beneficence is the doing well, benevolence the wishing or willing well to others; but benevolence has come to include beneficence, and to displace it. We should not now speak of benevolence which did not help, unless where there was no power to help; even then we should rather say good-will or sympathy. Charity, which originally meant the purest love for God and man (as in 1 Cor. xiii), is now almost universally applied to some form of almsgiving, and is much more limited in meaning than benevolence. Benignity suggests some occult power of blessing, such as was formerly ascribed to the stars; we may say a good man has an air of benignity. Kindness and tenderness are personal; benevolence and charity are general. Kindness extends to all sentient beings, whether men or animals, in prosperity or in distress. Tenderness especially goes out toward the young, feeble, and needy, or even to the dead. Humanity is so much kindness and tenderness toward man or beast as it would be inhuman not to have; we say of some act of care or kindness, "common humanity requires it." Generosity is self-forgetful kindness in disposition or action; it includes much besides giving; as, the generosity of forgiveness. Bounty applies to ample giving, which on a larger scale is expressed by munificence. Liberality indicates broad, genial kindly views, whether manifested in gifts or otherwise. We speak of the bounty of a generous host, the liberality or munificence of the founder of a college, or of the liberality of a theologian toward the holders of conflicting beliefs. Philanthropy applies to wide schemes for human welfare, often, but not always, involving large expenditures in charity or benevolence. Compare MERCY.

   Antonyms:
   barbarity, brutality, churlishness, greediness, harshness, ill-will, illiberality, inhumanity, malevolence, malignity, niggardliness, self-seeking, selfishness, stinginess, unkindness

   Synonyms:
   almsgiving, beneficence, benignity, bounty, charity, generosity, good-will, humanity, kind-heartedness, kindliness, kindness, liberality, munificence, philanthropy, sympathy, unselfishness

   Preposition:
   Benevolence of, on the part of, or from the wealthy, to or toward the poor.

Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:2.0 / 1 vote

1. benevolence

   Antonyms:
   unkindness, harshness, barbarity, niggardliness, maleficence, malignity, illiberality, ill-will, churlishness

   Synonyms:
   kindness, goodwill, charity, philanthropy, kindliness, kind-heartedness, benignity, beneficence, liberality

Matched Categories

1. • Kindness
   • Love

Princeton's WordNetRate these antonyms:1.0 / 2 votes

1. benevolencenoun

   disposition to do good

   Antonyms:
   malevolence, malignity

   Synonyms:
   benefaction

2. benevolencenoun

   an inclination to do kind or charitable acts

   Antonyms:
   malignity, malevolence

   Synonyms:
   benefaction

3. benevolence, benefactionnoun

   an act intending or showing kindness and good will

   Antonyms:
   malignity, malevolence

   Synonyms:
   benefaction

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated WordsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. benevolencenoun

   Synonyms:
   beneficence, bounty, benignity, charity

How to use benevolence in a sentence?

1. Randolph Ray:

   Kindness is the life's blood, the elixir of marriage. Kindness makes the difference between passion and caring. Kindness is tenderness. Kindness is love, but perhaps greater than love ... Kindness is good will. Kindness says, 'I want you to be happy.' Kindness comes very close to the benevolence of God.

2. Proverb:

   If charity cost nothing and benevolence caused no heartache, the world would be full of philanthropists.

3. John Jay Chapman:

   Benevolence alone will not make a teacher, nor will learning alone do it. The gift of teaching is a peculiar talent, and implies a need and a craving in the teacher himself.

4. Rodong Sinmun:

   The recent inter-Korean high-level talks are a precious fruition of the new policy set forth by the respected Supreme Leader in his New Year Address to improve the north-south relations, he is a peerless patriot and the supreme incarnation of love and benevolence as he is creditably carrying forward the patriotic history with the same warm love for the nation and benevolence as those of the great leaders.

5. Eli Steele:

   That word is not too strong. It's killing us now. I say every day, I hope that whites somehow begin to get the message to stop this notion that your benevolence, your virtue signaling is somehow gonna help black America achieve equality in American life. The opposite is true. It's gonna keep us down. You reduce the standards everywhere, you reduce the standards thereby saying, ‘We have no faith in you. You're inferior. We'll suspend the SAT exam in universities. We won't count it anymore because blacks don't do well on it.’ We either stand up like men and women and take our place in this world or we don’t.

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