Antonyms for gentlenessgen·tle·ness

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. gentleness

   Mercy is the exercise of less severity than one deserves, or in a more extended sense, the granting of kindness or favor beyond what one may rightly claim. Grace is favor, kindness, or blessing shown to the undeserving; forgiveness, mercy, and pardon are exercised toward the ill-deserving. Pardon remits the outward penalty which the offender deserves; forgiveness dismisses resentment or displeasure from the heart of the one offended; mercy seeks the highest possible good of the offender. There may be mercy without pardon, as in the mitigation of sentence, or in all possible alleviation of necessary severity; there may be cases where pardon would not be mercy, since it would encourage to repetition of the offense, from which timely punishment might have saved. Mercy is also used in the wider sense of refraining from harshness or cruelty toward those who are in one's power without fault of their own; as, they besought the robber to have mercy. Clemency is a colder word than mercy, and without its religious associations, signifying mildness and moderation in the use of power where severity would have legal or military, rather than moral sanction; it often denotes a habitual mildness of disposition on the part of the powerful, and is matter rather of good nature or policy than of principle. Leniency or lenity denotes an easy-going avoidance of severity; these words are more general and less magisterial than clemency; we should speak of the leniency of a parent, the clemency of a conqueror. Compare PITY.

   Antonyms:
   cruelty, hardness, harshness, implacability, justice, penalty, punishment, revenge, rigor, severity, sternness, vengeance

   Synonyms:
   benevolence, benignity, blessing, clemency, compassion, favor, forbearance, forgiveness, grace, kindness, lenience, leniency, lenity, mercy, mildness, pardon, pardon, pity, tenderness

   Preposition:
   The mercy of God to or toward sinners; have mercy on or upon one.

Matched Categories

1. • Gradient
   • Manner

Princeton's WordNetRate these antonyms:5.0 / 1 vote

1. gradualness, gentlenessnoun

   the property possessed by a slope that is very gradual

   Synonyms:
   gradualness, mildness, graduality, softness

2. gentleness, softness, mildnessnoun

   acting in a manner that is gentle and mild and even-tempered

   "his fingers have learned gentleness"; "suddenly her gigantic power melted into softness for the baby"; "even in the pulpit there are moments when mildness of manner is not enough"

   Synonyms:
   unmanliness, mildness, unfitness, indistinctness, womanishness, lenience, fuzziness, blurriness, clemency, leniency, effeminateness, gradualness, fogginess, lenity, sissiness, softness, balminess, effeminacy

How to use gentleness in a sentence?

1. Ralph W. Sockman:

   Nothing is so strong as gentleness and nothing is so gentle as real strength.

2. The Apostle Paul (Saul of Tarsus), The Bible- Galations 5:22-23 NIV:

   But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law.

3. Irish Proverb:

   True strength lies in gentleness.

4. Michael Avenatti:

   I know some of you may disagree with me. The answer to Donald Trump, you may say, is to do just the opposite of Donald Trump. Being noble, being kind, being classy. And I am all for each of those things, but tonight, with our country under an unprecedented assault by a con man who fights only for himself and degrades the vulnerable and the powerless and regular hardworking people day in and day out, I believe that we must honestly ask ourselves as a party whether those we fight for can afford our gentleness.

5. Reverend Michael Coren:

   The socon [social conservative] Bible seems to have had the references to forgiveness and gentleness expunged somewhere along the line, and Jesus has become the Lord of Nastiness rather than the Prince of Peace.”

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