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''benevolence'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260919121947-00-⌔

benevolence - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

benevolence (countable and uncountable, plural benevolences)

  • (uncountable) Disposition to do good.
    • ✤ *gesture of benevolence *
    • ✤ *show benevolence *
    • ✤ *spirit of benevolence *
    • ✤ She smiled with benevolence at the children.
    • ✤ * Benevolence? vvhich ſhall I be benevolent to; or vvhich firſt? I am puſſell’d in the choice.*1
  • (uncountable) Charitable kindness.
    • ✤ His acts of benevolence earned him great respect.
  • (countable) An altruistic gift or act.
  • (UK, historical) A kind of forced loan or contribution levied by kings without legal authority, first so called under Edward IV in 1473.

Etymology

Circa 1400, original sense “good will, disposition to do good”, Old French benivolence from Latin benevolentia (also directly from Latin), literally “good will”, from bene (“well, good”) + volentia, form of volēns, form of volō (“to wish”), components cognate to English benefit and voluntary, more distantly will (via Proto-Indo-European).2

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /bəˈnɛvələns/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • Audio (Mid-Atlantic US): 🔊

Printed 2026-09-19.

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Footnotes

  1. 1641 or 1642 (first performance), Richard Brome, A Joviall Crew: Or, The Merry Beggars. Presented in a Comedie, […], London: […] J[ames] Y[oung] for E[dward] D[od] and N[athaniel] E[kins] […], published 1652, →OCLC, Act III, signature [H4], recto: ↩

  2. Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “benevolence”, in Online Etymology Dictionary. ↩