- charitable
- charitable, benevolent, humane, humanitarian, philanthropic, eleemosynary, altruistic are comparable when they mean having or showing interest in or being concerned with the welfare of others.Charitable stresses either active generosity to the poor or leniency and mercifulness in one's judgments of others, but in each case it usually retains in some degree the implications of fraternal love or of compassion as the animating spirit behind the gift or the judgment{
generous and charitable, prompt to serve— Words wo rth
}{Mrs. Hawthorne had been rude ... to a friend of his, but that friend, so much more charitable and really good than she was, had made excuses for her— Archibald Marshall
}{it is more charitable to suspend judgment— Glasgow
}Benevolent also stresses some inner compulsion (as native kindliness, a desire to do good, or an interest in others' happiness and well- being). In contrast with charitable, however, it more often suggests an innate disposition than an inculcated virtue{his intentions are benevolent
}{old Dimple with his benevolent smile— H. G. Wells
}{my mother . . . always employed in benevolent actions while she uttered uncharitable words— Wharton
}{the administrator of the future must be the servant of free citizens, not the benevolent ruler of admiring subjects— Russell
}Humane implies tenderness and compassion, sometimes as qualities of one's temperament, but sometimes as required qualifications of enlightened and sensitive human beings; it is referable chiefly, but not exclusively, to methods and policies affecting the welfare of others{humane treatment of prisoners or of animals
}{with reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost— Garrison
}Humanitarian suggests an interest in the welfare or well-being of mankind or of a particular class or group of men more than of the individual; it is applied especially to acts, outlooks, and policies (as of institutions, rulers, or governments){as a nation we have been sharing our abundance with the world's hungry people . . . primarily from a humanitarian standpoint— Hope
}{such humanitarian issues as the repeal of the brutal debtor laws— Partington
}{a part of the nation became humanitarian, and with a tender conscience turned . . . toward the perfectibility of man— Canby
}{to use the A-bomb . . . was . . . wrong ... on humanitarian grounds— Zacharias
}Philanthropic and eleemosynary also suggest interest in humanity rather than in the individual, but they commonly imply (as humanitarian does not) the giving of money on a large scale to organized charities, to institutions for human advancement or social service, or to humanitarian causes{philan-thropic foundations
}{found time to devote to church, civic, and philanthropic affairs— Silveus
}{eleemosynary institutions
}{Contractors, rarely known for wearing eleemosynary halos, cheerfully pocketed a loss . . . while they waited for the self-help workers ... to catch up— Olivier
}{an institution of higher education is not a commercial enterprise .... Its character is eleemosynary, strictly eleemosynary— Himstead
}Altruistic presupposes the guidance of an ethical principle: that the interests of others should be placed above those of self; it usually implies the absence of selfishness and often indifference to one's own welfare or interests{if it is assumed that the objectives of American policy are wholly altruistic, it follows that non-Americans who participate . . . must be wholly virtuous— Muggeridge
}{altruistic motives
}{an altruistic physician
}Analogous words: generous, *liberal, bountiful, bounteous, open- handed, munificent: merciful, *forbearing, lenient, clement, tolerant: *tender, compassionate, warmhearted, sympatheticAntonyms: uncharitable
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
