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. 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.

2. Saadi Shirazi:

   Whosoever hath not knowledge, and benevolence, and piety knoweth nothing of reality, and dwelleth only in semblance.

3. John Updike:

   Government is either organized benevolence or organized madness; its peculiar magnitude permits no shading.

4. James Boswell:

   To act from pure benevolence is not possible for finite beings. Human benevolence is mingled with vanity, interest, or some other motive.

5. Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man 1871:

   Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system- with all these exalted powers- Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.

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